A Dark New Litmus Test for Power in Washington
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On one level, the system worked. The perimeter held. A would-be assassin was tackled in the hallway outside the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner. The one bullet that found a human target—a U.S. Secret Service agent—was halted, in part, by the officer’s phone and bulletproof vest, according to a law-enforcement summary report that we reviewed. A counterassault team promptly swarmed the stage with assault rifles and night-vision equipment in case the lights were cut. The government’s top leaders—president, vice president, Cabinet officials, speaker of the House—were ushered to secure locations in a matter of minutes. No one died in the attack.
But the collective sigh of relief and rounds of “I am fine” text messages last night belied a heaviness that administration officials and other dinner attendees were still processing this morning, even as Sunday brunches proceeded apace, albeit with more security and a newly somber sheen. This attack was different from the two prior assassination attempts on Donald Trump because the president was not the only apparent target. The alleged attacker wrote in a manifesto obtained by the New York Post that he was after “administration officials (not including Mr. Patel): they are targets, prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest.”
As the evening’s adrenaline faded this morning, this reality began setting in among Trump advisers, someone close to the White House told us. Had things gone differently, the nation’s top officials would have been in real danger. Personal security details are designed to protect the principals at all expense. If a presidential motorcade is attacked, there are contingency plans to have it split, leaving behind the junior staff and traveling press. The priority is clear: Get the president to safety. When the shots rang out last night at the Washington Hilton, multiple teams flooded into the rooms to find their protectees and get them out, climbing over chairs—in some cases with guns drawn or hand on holster—and sometimes leaving spouses, colleagues, and others to fend for themselves.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was body-blocked by three agents as he walked from the ballroom. His wife, Cheryl Hines, was left to follow alone a few feet behind, climbing over barriers in a ball gown. Speaker Mike Johnson, who was away from his table when the shooting started, had to send armed officers to retrieve his wife, according to a journalist sitting near him. For the other Trump-administration officials and advisers who lack personal security details, no special consideration was given. They were left behind.
“I noted a new litmus for status among the gov’t elite—whether you were whisked away by secret service, or left to fend,” the former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein wrote on social media today after attending the event.
This situation is not novel. These sorts of attempted attacks on high-profile leaders happen with some frequency. Trump was targeted twice during the 2024 campaign, narrowly escaping death when he was shot at during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Months later, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was assassinated in broad daylight on a Manhattan street, a crime that was celebrated in some corners of the internet. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home was attacked earlier this month, allegedly by a man who warned of humanity’s “impending extinction” from AI. The conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was close to Trump and his aides, was gunned down last year at a political event. His widow, Erika Kirk, was at this weekend’s dinner, visibly distraught as she was escorted out in her sequined cream dress. “I just want to go home,” she sobbed.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told us in a statement that the president was “thankful for the brave men and women in law enforcement who took swift action to quickly neutralize the perpetrator” and ensure the safety of everyone in attendance.
Some senior White House officials have been given extra protections. As we first reported in October, Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller moved to a military base after protesters began appearing outside his Northern Virginia home. Other Cabinet secretaries—including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—had already moved to bases, and at least one other senior administration official followed them because of a foreign threat.
[Read: A shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner]
The question now is what, if anything, needs to change. Already some are criticizing the decision to have so many senior levels of government in a single hall. Mike Pence would not even ride the White House elevator to the residence with Trump in the first term, wary of his responsibility as vice president if something went wrong. But at last night’s dinner, the president was joined by the next two people in the line of succession, J. D. Vance and Johnson. If catastrophe had struck, control of the U.S. nuclear codes would have passed to Senator Chuck Grassley, the 92-year-old president pro tempore.
“Had an explosive device gone off, you would have knocked out the president, vice president, speaker—the three in line of succession,” Representative Michael McCaul, the chair emeritus of the House Foreign Affairs committee, told CNN today. “I think the Secret Service needs to reconsider having both the president and vice president together.”
Even last night, before any shots rang out, some light gallows humor settled over the cavernous ballroom. Some administration officials were surprised to see Vance on the dais alongside Trump—not to mention much of the Cabinet scattered throughout the more than 100 tables—and, referring to the line of succession, quipped that they hoped the night wouldn’t conclude with a President Grassley.