On Saturday, an armed man sprinted through a security checkpoint at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., where US President Donald Trump and other administration officials had gathered with all of the country’s top political journalists. The gunman shot a Secret Service agent before law enforcement apprehended him – the agent was saved by a bulletproof vest.
Ahead of the incident, the 31-year-old suspect from Torrance, California, allegedly sent writings to family members describing himself as a “friendly federal assassin” and expressing anger at Trump administration policies, giving authorities increasing confidence that the attack was politically motivated. He is due in court for the first time today.
“I can’t imagine that there’s any profession that is more dangerous,” Trump said Saturday night. The attempted hit also took place at the same hotel as the attempted killing of then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Saturday’s incident comes as attempted assassinations and attacks against politicians in the United States have surged to the highest level on record since the 1960s. Trump himself has now faced three assassination attempts in the last two years. Meanwhile, lawmakers from both parties have been affected by this wave of violence. Investigations into threats directed at members of Congress and members of their families rose for a third year in a row, according to the US Capitol Police, with a 58% increase in 2025. Supreme Court justices have faced assassination threats, too.
It’s not just the national level, though: local lawmakers have also been targeted. In June, the top Democrat in the Minnesota House of Representatives, Melissa Hortman, and her husband were killed in their home. The same gunman also stalked and shot Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife that day, and carried an apparent hit list of more than 45 state and federal officials in Minnesota.
At the local level, research from Princeton University found that threats and harassment against officials spiked multiple times in 2025, with the largest increase occurring in the aftermath of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s killing in September – Kirk’s widow Erika was herself present at the WHCD on Saturday. More than half of officials – think mayors, city council members, and school board members – reported being insulted, about a third reported harassment, and 17% reported threats.
As the Graphic Truth above shows, this has had a chilling effect on local politicians’ willingness to continue holding public office, who frequently have fewer security resources than national-level politicians. During the third quarter of last year, nearly 75% said they were less willing to participate in political activities – including working on controversial issues, posting on social media, or running for higher office – out of fear of hostility, up from 66% in the previous quarter.
While the United States has relatively low rates of targeted political violence compared to the rest of the world, the uptick has made extraordinary scenes like the shooting at the WHCD increasingly ordinary, raising alarms for every level of the US government.
