Donald Trump Reveals Why It Took So Long For Him to Evacuate White House Correspondents' Dinner

Donald Trump sat down for an interview on 60 Minutes, which aired on Sunday (April 26), less than a day after the 2026 White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting.

The 79-year-old President of the United States was interviewed by CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, who he called a “disgrace” and should be ashamed of herself after reading from the gunman’s manifesto.

During the interview, Trump was asked about the length of time it took for agents to get him and First Lady Melania Trump evacuated from the ballroom at the dinner.

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“You see the security moving quickly, within seconds, grabbing the vice president by his coat, lifting him up, bringing him out, then the counter assault comes in,” Norah says. “It took 10 seconds for them to flank you, Mr. President, and then 20 seconds to get you out. It looked chaotic. At one point you were down. What was happening?”

“Well, what happened is it was a little bit me. I wanted to see what was happening, and I wasn’t making it that easy for him. I wanted to see what was going on. And by that time, we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem, different kind of a problem, bad one,” Trump responded. “And different than what would be normal noise from a ballroom, which you hear all the time. And I was surrounded by great people, and I probably made them act a little bit more slowly. I said, ‘Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let me see, wait a minute.’”

She then asked about another moment where it appeared he went down to the ground.

“What happened is, then I started walking with him. I turned, I started walking, and they said, ‘Please go down. Please go down on the floor,’” the President said. “So I went down, and first lady went down also. We were asked to go down by the agents as I was walking.”

“They wanted you almost to crawl,” Norah posed.

Trump replied, “Pretty much. I was standing up, and then turned around the opposite direction and started pretty much walking out, pretty tall, a little bent over, because, you know, I’m not looking to be standing too tall but I was walking out. It was pretty about halfway there, and they said, ‘Please go down to the floor. Please go down to the floor.’ So I dropped to the floor. So did the first lady.”

You can watch Trump‘s full 60 Minutes interview right here.

If you missed it, find out more about the charges the gunman is facing during his arraignment on Monday (April 27).