‘Hate to say I’m honoured’: Trump’s Lincoln reference over repeated violent incidents

Trump White House Correspondents Dinner 2

2 min readApr 26, 2026 11:00 PM IST

US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he viewed his repeated encounters with violence as an indicator of his “historic significance” and that he is confident that such dangers won’t affect him after a man armed with guns and knives stormed the White House correspondents dinner attended by Trump.

Trump suggested that he views the shootings as a reflection of his impact. “When you’re impactful, they go after you. When you’re not impactful, they leave you alone,” the US president said, who was uninjured in the shooting incident. “They seem to think he was a lone wolf.”

Addressing a press briefing two hours after the shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Trump was asked by a reporter why does it keep happening with him, he said “I’ve studied assassinations, and I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people that do the most, you take a look at Abraham Lincoln, I mean you go through the people that have gone through this…they’re the ones that they go after.”

On his repeated encounters with violence, Trump said, “I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot.”

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