I arrived at the White House as the security operation was still in full swing last night. The shots fired at the White House Correspondents’ dinner had radically shifted one of the most glamorous evenings in the DC calendar.
I watched from a few feet away as the president entered the press briefing room, less crowded than normal.
The president and First Lady were there with his press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
So too the head of the FBI Kash Patel and other members of his cabinet.
This was a deliberate show of unity and resolve, so soon after a gunman had tried to breach the security of the gala dinner where the president had been guest of honour.
Donald Trump was remarkably calm and good humoured as he spoke.
He attempted to strike a tone of unity at one point and was clear in his determination that the dinner would be rescheduled, saying he had asked for it to carry on last night.
He also did not seek to make political capital from the incident, making it clear this did not appear to be linked to the war in Iran.
The attempted shooting took place in the same hotel where President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. When asked about the repeated political violence which has dogged this country down the years, Donald Trump seemed to be sanguine.
He repeated his story about how dangerous being a president is in the modern era, claiming about eight per cent of incumbents are shot at, agreeing it’s the cost of doing business.
“I like not to think about it,” he said. “I think I handle it as well as it can be handled.”
He spoke of his shock describing the noise of gunfire which he thought it was something being dropped.
“It was either a tray or a bullet.”
When asked why this keeps happening to him, he said he had studied assassinations and thought the presidents who had the biggest impact were the ones targeted.
He was asked if he thought the alleged assailant named as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, had political motivations, he simply said “we’ll be able to tell you that by tomorrow or the next day”.
The president described him as “a sick person”, “a lone wolf” and a “whack job”.
He paid tribute to the Secret Service team which tackled the gunman, comparing them to an action star. So ended a remarkable press conference following a dramatic and shocking evening.
Another chapter in the long list of presidential security incidents which this time thankfully left no one dead.
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