BREAKING: Trump Admits He Slowed His Own Secret Service Evacuation at WHCD Shooting
President Donald Trump acknowledged in a Sunday interview that he personally complicated his own Secret Service evacuation during the shooting at Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, telling CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell that he resisted agents’ instructions because he wanted to watch what was unfolding around him.
The incident occurred at the Washington Hilton ballroom, where a gunman opened fire on security personnel outside the event. Video captured Trump on the floor before agents got him moving, while Vice President JD Vance had already been pulled from the room more than ten seconds earlier.
Trump insisted to O’Donnell that he did not fall on his own, instead claiming agents told him to get on the floor as he was walking out. “I started walking, and they said, ‘Please go down, please go down on the floor,'” he said, adding that Melania went down alongside him at the agents’ direction.
When pressed on the noticeably slower and more chaotic nature of his own evacuation compared to Vance’s, Trump conceded that he was part of the problem. “It was a little bit me,” he admitted. “I wanted to see what was happening, and I wasn’t making it that easy for them.” He described repeatedly telling agents to wait while he surveyed the scene.
The suspected gunman, identified as 31-year-old Los Angeles teacher Cole Thomas Allen, was apprehended after passing through a magnetometer but never reached the ballroom. Investigators obtained an alleged manifesto indicating he had targeted Trump and senior administration officials.
Trump, who turns 80 in June and has disclosed multiple age-related health conditions including chronic venous insufficiency, is the oldest person ever to serve as president.