Donald Trump sat down with CBS on Sunday to recount the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, describing a moment of gunfire that left him remarkably unfazed. A gunman opened fire at the Washington Hilton on Saturday night, though the shots came nowhere near the basement ballroom where Trump was seated.
When asked how worried he felt after the gunshots rang out, Trump's response was characteristically blunt. "I wasn't worried," he told CBS correspondent Norah O'Donnell. "I understand life. We live in a crazy world."
What slowed the Secret Service's response, Trump suggested, was his own reluctance to leave. He wanted to see what was happening. "I wasn't making it that easy for them," Trump said. "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 problem, a bad one, and different than what would be normal noise from a ballroom."
Trump acknowledged that he was surrounded by protective detail trying to move him. "I probably made them act a little more slowly. I said, 'Wait a minute, wait a minute,''' he recalled. The Secret Service officers grew more insistent, repeatedly ordering Trump and First Lady Melania Trump to drop to the floor. Trump complied and eventually made his way to safety along with other administration members.
Law enforcement exchanged gunfire with the suspected shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California. Officers tackled and arrested Allen, who was carrying knives, a shotgun, and a handgun.
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said the attack appears politically motivated and suggests Allen may have targeted multiple administration officials. "We do believe, based upon just a very preliminary start to understanding what happened, that he was targeting members of the administration," Blanche told CBS on Sunday.
Allen had sent writings to family members that investigators are treating as a manifesto. The 1,100-word document, signed with a handle that included references to being a "Friendly Federal Assassin," contained inflammatory language directed at Trump and the administration.
The interview took a sharper turn when O'Donnell read portions of the manifesto on air that contained crude insults about Trump. Trump pushed back hard, accusing O'Donnell of deliberately reading the worst parts. "I was waiting for you to read that, because I knew you would, because you're horrible people," he said. "Yeah he did write that, I'm not a rapist. I read the manifesto. You know, he's a sick person. You shouldn't be reading that on 60 Minutes, you're a disgrace, but go ahead, let's finish the interview."
Trump continued to spar with O'Donnell throughout the conversation. When she noted that Allen had attended a "No Kings" protest, Trump struck back. "The reason you have people like that, is you have people doing 'No Kings'. I'm not a king. What I am, if I was a king, I wouldn't be dealing with you."
Despite his criticism of the press, which he characterized as soft on crime, Trump called for the White House Correspondents' Association to reschedule the dinner within the next month. "I don't want to see it be canceled. I think it's really bad for a crazy person to be able to cancel something like this," Trump said. He downplayed his own interest in attending. "It's not that I want to go. I'm very busy. I don't need that."
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump's willingness to downplay a shooting at his own table while hammering the reporter covering it tells you everything about how he plans to navigate this moment."
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