Donald Trump faced another round of violence this weekend when gunshots erupted near the White House complex, marking the latest security crisis in an escalating pattern of assassination attempts targeting the president.
Two people were shot during an encounter with Secret Service agents near Pennsylvania Avenue and 17th Street Northwest on Saturday evening, according to CNN’s reporting. The incident triggered an immediate lockdown, with press corps members rushing into the briefing room as agents shouted warnings and the area went into full security mode. The Saturday shooting comes less than a month after Cole Tomas Allen, a 31-year-old from California, stormed the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on April 25 with a 12-gauge shotgun and .38 caliber pistol.
Allen fired at a Secret Service checkpoint, striking an officer in the chest before the officer, protected by body armor, returned fire and stopped him. Federal prosecutors moved quickly, charging Allen with attempting to assassinate the president, transporting firearms across state lines with intent to commit a felony, and discharging a weapon during a violent crime. The pattern of threats intensified when authorities arrested Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood Al-Saadi, a 32-year-old Iraqi national trained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in Turkey on May 15 and extradited him to the United States.
Al-Saadi specifically targeted Ivanka Trump for assassination in retaliation for the 2020 US drone strike that killed his mentor, Iranian military chief Qasem Soleimani.