The president of the United States is a powerful, high-profile target with enemies across a dangerous world.
The attempts to kill presidents have come not only at the point of a gun, but from poisoned packages, mail bombs, roadside explosives — even suicide attacks from the air.
Four of the 45 men to serve in the role of chief executive were assassinated in office.
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There have been dozens of other known attempts to take the life of an American president – a position widely recognized since World War II as the leader of the free world.
In the wake of the shocking events of Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, here is a look at 14 of the most bizarre attempts to assassinate our presidents – as well as the four times American presidents were murdered in office. The information is from the Library of Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as a variety of news and historical sources.
Assassination attempts on US presidents
2024: Donald Trump
A rooftop gunman fired several rounds at the former president during an event shown live on national television as Trump stumped on the campaign trail on Saturday, July 13, 2024.
One of the rounds grazed his ear, just inches from what could have been a fatal shot to the head. The rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was part of Trump’s ongoing bid to regain the White House.
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The suspected gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead, reportedly by Secret Service snipers. Investigations are ongoing.
2016: Donald Trump
Michael Steven Sandford, a British citizen who had overstayed his tourist visa, attempted to seize the firearm of a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer at a June 18 Trump campaign rally. The man had taken shooting lessons at a gun range the day before.
Sandford was sentenced to 12 months and 1 day in prison after pleading guilty to several charges. Among those charges: illegal alien in possession of a firearm.
2013: Barack Obama
James Everett Dutschke sent letters he’d dusted with poison Ricin to then-President Obama “in what prosecutors have said was an elaborate plot to frame a rival,” according to a Politico report.
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Dutschke also sent poisoned letters to Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, and Mississippi judge Sadie Holland.
The letters to Obama and Wicker were intercepted before delivery; the letter to Holland was delivered, but the judge was unharmed.
2011: Barack Obama
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez opened fire on the White House, claiming that Obama was “the devil” and the “anti-Christ,” according to federal authorities.
Ortega-Hernandez drove 1,800 miles from Idaho to Washington D.C., before opening fire from the passenger window of his Honda with a Romanian-made semiautomatic rifle with telescopic sight.
2006: George W. Bush
Vladimir Arutyunian interrupted a political rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, to throw a grenade toward then-President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.
The grenade, wrapped in cloth, landed 100 feet from the world leaders and apparently malfunctioned.
Arutyunian later said he would try to kill the president again and was sentenced to life in prison.
1996: Bill Clinton
Air Force One, carrying then-President Bill Clinton along with then-first lady Hillary Clinton, was just about to land in the Philippines when Secret Service agents discovered an explosive device on the planned motorcade route through Manila.
The agents quickly changed the route of the presidential procession, saving the president and first lady from a suspected al-Qaeda assassination attempt.
1994: Bill Clinton
Frank Eugene Corder stole a Cessna 150L single-engine prop plane on the night of Sept. 11, 1994, and the next day attempted to crash it into the White House to kill the president. Corder was killed instead when he crashed into South Lawn.
There were no other casualties. Officials said severe intoxication caused him to miss his White House target.
1981: Ronald Reagan
John Hinckley Jr. fired his .22 caliber revolver with “devastator” bullets at then-President Ronald Reagan and his security team outside the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981, in Washington, D.C., as part of a disturbed effort to win the attention of actress Jodie Foster.
Reagan was wounded when one of the bullets ricocheted off the limousine, striking him under the left armpit, according to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum.
Reagan underwent emergency surgery at George Washington University Hospital to remove a bullet from his chest.
Metropolitan Police Department officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy were also wounded. White House press secretary James Brady was shot in the head and severely disabled. After 12 days in the hospital, Reagan was able to return to the White House.
1975: Gerald Ford
Would-be assassin Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme aimed a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol at the president on Sept. 5, 1975, as he greeted a crowd of people outside a Sacramento, California, hotel.
Secret Service agent Larry Buendorf quickly jammed his hand in front of the cocked hammer of the gun, preventing Fromme from firing at Ford.
The incident gained further bizarre notoriety when it was revealed that Fromme was a member of the infamous Charles Manson family.
1974: Richard Nixon
In Feb. 1974, Samuel Joseph Byck shot and killed a cop and the co-pilot as he attempted to hijack Delta Airlines Flight 523 on the ground at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
It was part of a suspected plot to kill then-President Richard Nixon by crashing the DC-9 passenger jet into the White House.
Byck carried an incendiary device on the plane — and shot and wounded the pilot.
1947: Harry Truman
The Stern Gang, a Zionist militia in the pre-Israel Middle East, mailed several explosive devices to the White House in an attempt to kill then-President Harry Truman.
Mailroom staff discovered the explosives, which Secret Service bomb experts defused.
1912: Theodore Roosevelt
The rugged leader of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War proved his mettle again during a campaign stop in Milwaukee while running for a third term as president.
Roosevelt was shot in the chest but went to the hospital only after delivering an 84-minute speech with a round from a .38 revolver lodged in the cavity of his chest.
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Blood seeped from Roosevelt’s body and soaked his white shirt with a large crimson stain as he spoke.
1864: Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln was riding horseback in August from the White House to a retreat cottage three miles away when “a would-be assassin fired from near the road, shooting the stovepipe [hat] off Lincoln’s head,” according to Smithsonian Magazine.
Soldiers later found the hat on the road with a bullet hole through the crown.
1835: Andrew Jackson
Old Hickory had a near-death experience when gunman Richard Lawrence pulled a gun on the president in the Capitol Rotunda in Jan. 1835.
Lawrence aimed a derringer single-shot pistol Jackson’s heart from inches away and pulled the trigger. The cap exploded, noise and smoke filled the air, according to an official Senate.gov account — but the powder failed to ignite.
The assassinations of 4 US presidents
1963: John F. Kennedy
The president was shot dead in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 22, 1963, an event that continues to haunt the nation. In the eyes of millions of Americans, the crime remains unsolved.
The lone suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was shot dead himself on live television two days later. His death helped fuel the 60 years of questions, controversy and conspiracy theories that followed.
1901: William McKinley
Leon Czolgosz shot the president twice in the stomach from point-blank range in Buffalo, New York, on Sept. 6, 1901. He died of the wounds eight days later.
“Chief executive victim of most cowardly anarchist,” the San Francisco Call proclaimed in a boldfaced front-page headline. Witnesses beat Czolgosz nearly to death. He was convicted and executed just a month later.
Congress directed the Secret Service to protect the president following McKinley’s assassination.
1881: James Garfield
President Garfield was planning to board a train in Washington D.C. on July 2, less than four months after taking office, when he was shot twice by disgruntled campaign supporter Charles Guiteau.
The writer and lawyer said he was angered after being passed over for the post of ambassador to France.
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Garfield suffered in pain for 79 days before succumbing to his wounds. Guiteau was found guilty and hanged in 1882.
1865: Abraham Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth, a celebrity stage actor, shot Lincoln in the back of the head from point-blank range on April 14, 1865, as the president watched a play on the balcony of Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.
The assassination came just days after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered his forces — effectively ending the Civil War in triumph for Lincoln and Union forces.
Booth, a “vigorous supporter of the southern cause,” according to Britannica, then became the subject of a frantic manhunt. He was shot dead on April 26, 1865.
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