President Donald Trump isn’t interested in wearing a bulletproof vest despite surviving multiple assassination attempts.
Trump, 79, was asked by reporters at an Oval Office event on Thursday, April 30, whether there had been any talks regarding the president taking the security precaution in future.
“I don’t know if I can handle looking 20 pounds heavier,” Trump responded, prompting laughs from several people in the room.
Trump was likely the intended target when a shooter reportedly opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner event, held in the Washington Hilton ballroom on April 24.
The president and first lady Melania Trump, 56, were rushed off stage after shots reportedly broke out.
While the Trumps, Vice President J.D. Vance and others were safely evacuated, a Secret Service agent was struck during the incident. The wounded agent was wearing a protective vest.
“Frankly, the vest did an amazing job because it took a bullet close up,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday. “And he didn’t even want to go to the hospital. We sent him to the hospital.”
Trump also likened the experience of getting shot while wearing a bulletproof vest to “getting hit by Mike Tyson.”
The day after the WHCD shooting, Trump praised the bulletproof vest’s role as he briefed the media on the condition of the injured Secret Service agent.
“The vest did the job,” Trump told reporters. “I just spoke to the officer and he was doing great, he’s in great shape, in very high spirits and I told him we love him and respect him and he’s a very proud guy, he’s very proud of what he does, the Secret Service agent.”
California native Cole Tomas Allen was apprehended during the shooting and subsequently charged with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, transportation of a firearm and ammunition in interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, per the Justice Department. He has not yet entered a plea.
Meanwhile, Trump insisted he was “honored” to be a target after the WHCD shooting incident.
“When you look at our great presidents, [this] doesn’t happen to people who don’t do anything,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday, April 25.
Trump has also addressed his seemingly slow evacuation from the ballroom in the midst of the incident.
“What happened is, it was a little bit me. I wanted to see what was happening, and I wasn’t making it that easy for [the shooter],” Trump told 60 Minutes on Sunday, April 26.
“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 a problem, bad one, and different than what would be normal noise from a ballroom, which you hear all the time,” he added. “I was surrounded by great people, and I probably made them act a little bit more slowly. I said, ‘Wait a minute. Let me see.’”
