Security incidents involving Donald Trump

Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, has been involved in numerous security incidents, including assassination threats and attempts. The first known attempt occurred before Trump was the official Republican nominee, at a campaign rally during the 2016 presidential election. The latest attempt, which is being treated as an assassination attempt, occurred at a campaign rally during the 2024 presidential election.

2016 Las Vegas rally incident
On June 18, 2016, Trump was giving a speech at the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada as part of his presidential campaign. During the speech, Michael Steven Sandford, a 20-year-old British man, attempted to grab a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer's pistol. The officer quickly subdued Sandford and he was arrested and handed over to the United States Secret Service, where he expressed his desire to murder Trump, claiming if he (Trump) were on the street tomorrow, he would try this again. Sandford was later sentenced to 12 months and one day's imprisonment, along with being fined $200. After becoming eligible for early release, Sandford was released and deported to the United Kingdom in May 2017.

2016 Reno "gun" scare
On November 5, 2016, three days before the presidential election, Trump was speaking at a rally in Reno, Nevada when a man in the crowd screamed "gun", causing Trump to be rushed off stage by security and the man to be tackled by surrounding members in the crowd. The man, identified as 33-year-old Austyn Daniel Crites, was subdued by Secret Service agents and searched, only to find that he was unarmed. Crites, who was a Republican that opposed Trump, was holding up a sign shortly before that stated "Republicans against Trump"; Crites stated others attempted to grab the sign and were booing him. After the scene was cleared and identified as safe, Trump returned to the stage minutes later and finished the speech without incident.

2017 forklift attempt
On September 6, 2017, in Mandan, North Dakota, Gregory Lee Leingang stole a forklift from an oil refinery and attempted to drive it toward the presidential motorcade while Trump was visiting to rally public support. After the forklift became jammed within the refinery, he fled on foot and was arrested by the pursuing police. While interviewed in detention, Leingang admitted his intent to murder the president by flipping the presidential limousine with the stolen forklift, to the surprise of authorities, who suspected he was merely thieving the vehicle for personal use. Leingang pleaded guilty to the attempted attack, stealing the forklift, related charges and several other unrelated crimes on the same day. Consequently, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. His defense attorney noted a "serious psychiatric crisis".

2018 ricin attempt
On October 1, 2018, an envelope laced with ricin was sent to Trump before being discovered by mailing facilities. Several other letters were sent to the Pentagon, all of them labeled on the front with "Jack and the Missile Bean Stock Powder". Two days later on October 3, a 39-year-old Utah Navy veteran named William Clyde Allen III was arrested and charged with one count of mailing a threat against the president and five counts of mailing threatening communications to an officer or an employee of the United States. Allen pleaded not guilty to all charges.

2020 ricin attempt
On September 20, 2020, Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier was arrested in Buffalo, New York while attempting to cross over the border to Canada. Ferrier, who is Canadian, wrote in a ricin-laced letter to Trump that he should drop out of the ongoing 2020 presidential election along with calling him an "ugly tyrant clown". She is charged with eight counts each of prohibitions with respect to biological weapons and making threats via interstate commerce and faces up to life in prison. On August 17, 2023, a US court sentenced Ferrier to nearly 22 years in prison for sending a letter containing lethal ricin to then-President Donald Trump.

2020 Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot
In October 2020, it was reported that Barry Croft Jr, a Delaware man who was arrested for his involvement in the kidnapping plot against Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, included Trump in a list of politicians he wanted to hang. In December 2022, Croft was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

2024 assassination attempt
On July 13, 2024, a 20-year-old man named Thomas Matthew Crooks fired shots into a Trump rally from an elevated position outside the venue while Trump was giving a speech near Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was injured and was bleeding from his right ear after the shooting. Crooks, as well as a rally attendee, were killed, while another four were left injured.

Crooks was later dubbed "American intelligent fool" in allusion to the words of E. F. Schumacher. Schumacher, a British statistician and economist, was quoted as saying in his 1973 book: Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered, that "Any intelligent fool can make things...more violent".