What to Know
President Donald Trump’s reaction to the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has sparked a lot of concerns online. The White House has said that the suspect made it clear that his goal was to target Trump administration officials. During his time in politics, Trump has faced multiple threats, which have included assassination attempts.
So, after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Fox News reporter Peter Doocy questioned Trump about these repeated threats.
The reporter specifically asked, “Respectfully, why do you think this keeps happening to you?”
CNN airs footage of the President being rushed off stage at the WHCD. pic.twitter.com/w5OyQVIAd3
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2026
Trump didn’t seem offended by the question. Instead, he responded in a way that a lot of social media users found concerning and not the least bit modest. Somehow, he managed to frame these threats in a positive way, suggesting that they must keep happening because of his impact.
“Well, you know, I’ve studied assassinations,” Trump told the reporter. “And, I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people who do the most—you take a look at the people, Abraham Lincoln. I mean, you go through the people that have gone through this…the people who do the most, the people that make the biggest impact, they’re the ones that they go after.”
He added, “They don’t go after the ones that don’t do much ’cause they like it that way. And when you look at the people that have either—whether it was an attempt or or a successful attempt—they’re very impactful people. Just take a look at the names. The big names.”
He then related this to the threats he has faced.
Fox’s Peter Doocy asks President Trump: Why does this keep happening to you?
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2026
Trump responds: The people who make the biggest impact are the people they go after. I hate to say I’m honored by that. pic.twitter.com/vm7HBqOK8C
“I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot,” he continued. “We’ve done a lot. We have taken this country—we were a laughingstock for years and now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world. We’ve changed this country, and there are a lot of people that are not happy about that. So, I think that’s the answer, Peter.”
Reacting to a clip of this response on X, a lot of Trump’s critics agreed that he’s definitely making an impact, but not in the way he seems to be suggesting. “I have to agree with him,” one person on the platform admitted. “His administration has made the largest impact on the economy in my 50+ years in existence. I thought the 2008 crash was bad but nothing compares to today’s economy. Everything has quadrupled in price and there’a no end in sight.”
Someone else wrote, “Has he ever figured out that some of the biggest impacts are negative?”
Others couldn’t believe Trump managed to make a shooting about his ego.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer describes the incident where he started hearing gun shots near him and a police officer threw Blitzer to the ground: They got the gunman who had a major weapon. pic.twitter.com/70QStceGRh
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2026
“Modest isn’t he?” another critic wrote in response to Trump’s comments. And although Trump makes headlines for saying shocking things on a regular basis (probably daily at this point), the way he reacted to this shooting still managed to surprise some people. “Did he seriously just say he’s honoured that there were shots fired at the WHCD tonight?” someone questioned.
It’s actually not the first time that Trump has compared himself to other influential leaders when reflecting on the threats against him. In February, after a 21-year-old man breached the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, Trump said, “You read about all these crazy shooters, but they only go after consequential presidents. They don’t go after non-consequential presidents.”
He then joked, “So maybe I want to be a little less consequential? Can we hold it back a little bit, please?”
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