Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) said Sunday that protective measures around President Trump have been strengthened since the July 2024 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, following a Saturday night incident at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner where a gunman exchanged fire with law enforcement.
“It improved since Pennsylvania. The policy is when the president is shot at or in threat, you get him down, you get him out, you wrap him with a ballistic blanket, and you get him out of there,” Zinke, a former Interior secretary under Trump and retired Navy SEAL, told host Chris Stirewalt on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”
Zinke specifically criticized the image of Trump raising his fist after being shot in the ear at the Butler rally. “That basically should have never happened because he should have been far, far away,” he said. “So I think the security has improved. But we’re vulnerable.”
Saturday’s incident occurred when an armed man charged a security checkpoint outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton—the same hotel where President Ronald Reagan and three others were shot in 1981. Interim Metropolitan Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect, identified by multiple outlets as 31-year-old Cole Allen of Torrance, California, was carrying a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. CBS News reported that the suspect wrote a manifesto targeting Trump administration officials “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest,” according to law enforcement and White House officials. A White House official confirmed the manifesto to The Hill.
Secret Service agents quickly evacuated Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President Vance, and other officials from the ballroom. Trump praised the response on his Truth Social platform, writing that agents “did a fantastic job” and “acted quickly and bravely.” The incident comes just over two months after a man pointed a gun at Trump while he golfed in West Palm Beach, Florida; that suspect did not fire.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the suspect will be arraigned Monday on charges of using a firearm during a crime of violence and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told CNN’s Dana Bash that the man could “absolutely” face attempted assassination charges. “The way that these charges work, a lot of the charges that he could be charged with depends on us understanding his motive, his premeditation, what he wanted to do,” Blanche said. “And that requires us to go through the evidence and develop a case, which the FBI is working on now.”
The repeated security breaches have intensified scrutiny of Trump’s protective detail. For more on the immediate aftermath, read our report on how allies and foes reacted to the evacuation. The WHCA president also praised the security response despite the disruption.
Zinke’s comments reflect ongoing concerns among Republican lawmakers about presidential security, even as they acknowledge improvements since the Butler shooting. The retired Navy SEAL emphasized that the country remains vulnerable to determined attackers, a point underscored by the close call at the correspondents’ dinner.
