‘That was … very unexpected,’ said President Trump, addressing the press after the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Five-to-eight rounds were fired by a heavily armed man who was quickly detained by the Secret Service and law enforcement.

President Trump, the First Lady, Secretary of State, and Secretary of War were all in attendance. They are unharmed.

The motivation for the assassination attempt is not yet known, and while the President mentioned Iran, everything remains speculation at this point. ‘My impression is he was a lone wolf, a whack job,’ said the President. ‘These are crazy people and they have to be dealt with. I think very shortly we’re going to know a lot about him.’

Charges as expected to be laid ‘imminently’.

Addressing the press, Donald Trump said:

Incredibly, acted upon by Secret Service and law enforcement. This was an event dedicated to #FreedomOfSpeech that was supposed to bring together members of both parties with members of the press and in a certain way, it did.

Because the fact that they just unified … I saw a room that was just totally unified. It was, in one way, very beautiful. A very beautiful thing to see.

A man charged a security checkpoint armed with multiple weapons and he was taken down by some very brave members of Secret Service and they acted very quickly.

And I have just released, for purposes of transparency, clarity, I wanted it to be put out – you probably have it by now – put out on Truth [Social] and many other platforms – a tape showing the violence of this thug that attacked our constitution and also showing how quickly Secret Service and law enforcement acted on our country’s behalf. Really did a great job.

One officer was shot but saved by the fact he was wearing a – obviously – a very good bulletproof vest. He was shot from very close distance with a very powerful gun and the vest did the job.

I just spoke to the officer and he’s doing great. Great shape. He is in very high spirits and we told him we love him and respect him and he’s a very proud guy. He’s proud of what he does, Secret Service Agent.

And we looked at all of the conditions that took place tonight and I will say it’s not a particularly secure building and – uh – I didn’t want to say this but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we’re planning at the White House – it’s actually a larger room and much more secure. It’s got … bulletproof glass – we need the ballroom – that’s why Secret Service, that’s why the military are demanding it. They’ve wanted the ballroom for 150 years for lots of different reasons but today is a little bit different because today we need levels of security that probably no one has ever seen before. But everyone owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to the courage of law enforcement. The law enforcement and working with the DC Police and we just spoke with the Mayor and when we’re finished, the Police Chief is going to take over and discuss it also from their viewpoint. But they also performed exactly as they were supposed to and when you see the attacker in different positions but you also see the attacker totally subdued and under control.

So as you know this is not the first time in the past couple of years that our republic has been attacked by a would-be assassin who sought to kill. Pennsylvania less than two years ago, you’ll all know that story. And Palm Beach, Florida, too, months after that. Came close. We really had – again – we had some great work done by law enforcement but in light of this evening’s events I ask that all Americans recommit with their hearts in resolving our differences peacefully. We have to resolve our differences.

I will say, you had Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Conservatives, Liberals, and Progressives – those words are interchangeable perhaps, but maybe they’re not, but everybody in that room – big crowd – record-setting crowd – there was a record-setting group of people, and there was a tremendous amount of love and coming together. I watched – I watched and I was very very impressed by that.

But we were – First Lady and I were – taken very well care – very quickly – very quickly – rushed off the stage. Vice President JD Vance was here, was likewise … beautifully done. He was just saying how quickly everybody acted. Law enforcement. Secret Service … Marco [Rubio] said the same thing. Pete [Hegseth] was there. Pete didn’t want any help. He didn’t want anybody to help. He doesn’t want anybody to help him but you did get some, didn’t you? And I think you also said that it was very impressive.

… the man has been captured. They’ve gone into his apartment. I guess he lives in California. And he’s a sick person. Very sick person. And we don’t want things like this to happen.

I think it’s very important that I say, though, and I told the representatives of the evening that it was such a beautiful job – such a beautiful evening – and again, they are talking about free speech in our constitution. That’s what it’s all about. Not just White House correspondents. It was really based on free speech and our constitution. But I said very importantly that we’ll do it again within the next 30 days and we’ll make it bigger and better and even nicer.

So, I just want to thank everyone who was involved. I also want to thank the press, the media, you’ve been very responsible in your coverage.