Another weekend, another failed and frankly pathetic attempt to kill the President of the United States. On February 22, a Sunday, Secret Service shot dead an armed 21-year-old male called Austin Tucker Martin, who had entered the Mar a Lago complex, although Donald Trump wasn’t there at the time.
America is in a strange condition when a shoot-out at the White House will be soon forgotten
On the Saturday night of April 25, the 31-year-old Cole Thomas Allen tried and failed to storm the White House Correspondent’s Dinner at the Hilton hotel in Washington DC. And we all saw what happened there.
Earlier this month, in an incident the news cycle quickly moved past, Secret Service shot an armed individual at the National Mall.
And then yesterday it was the turn of 21-year-old Nasire Best (One can’t help thinking of Trump’s famous line about immigration: ‘They’re not sending their best.’)
He tried to shoot his way into the White House complex but was stopped by Secret Service bullets and was then pronounced dead in hospital. Best was apparently known to local police as someone who had repeatedly attempted to breach the White House security perimeter.
What connects all these incidents other than mental illness? The shooters are all disturbed young men, addled by hatred of Trump and convinced fate has chosen them — of all people — to slay the Commander-in-Chief. None has come as close as 20-year-old Matthew Thomas Crooks, who shot Trump through the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024.
Trump, for his part, seems to have become accustomed to the various attempts.
Yesterday, on Truth Social, he trotted out his thanks to the Secret Service and local law enforcement for saving his life, again.
And as he did last month after the WHCD incident, he also sought to use the news to make the case for his current obsession: the new, super-secure $1 billion White House Ballroom redevelopment.
Trump said: ‘This event is one month removed from the White House Correspondent’Dinner shooting, and goes to show how important it is, for all future Presidents, to get, what will be, the most safe and secure space of its kind ever built in Washington, D.C. The National Security of our Country demands it!’
It’s not quite clear how the Best incident justifies the new White House plans, which apparently include state-of-the-art anti-drone and missile systems. But Trump nearly always gets what he wants and he is right to point out the growing number of attempts on his life. America is in a strange condition when a shoot-out at the White House will be soon forgotten.
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