Assassination Attempts on US Presidents: A Historical Overview

A report by Ahmad Abdallah, English adaptation by Nadine Sassine

A record of assassination attempts on US Presidents, the most recent being the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania. The former president was the third president to survive assassination attempts.

The incident most similar to Trump’s is the attempted assassination of former President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 during his presidential campaign. On that day, John Flammang Schrank shot at him, wounding Roosevelt. He survived because a manuscript of a long speech in his pocket absorbed part of the bullet's force.

President Ronald Reagan also survived an assassination attempt in 1981, which was not politically motivated. John Hinckley Jr. shot at him outside the Washington Hilton Hotel in an attempt to gain the attention of Hollywood star Jodie Foster. Reagan was seriously injured but recovered after a short period.

Roosevelt, Reagan, and Trump’s luck did not extend to four American presidents who were assassinated. The first was President Abraham Lincoln, who was killed in 1865 at Ford’s Theatre in Washington by actor John Wilkes Booth, who shot Lincoln in the head while he was watching a play due to Booth's anger over Lincoln’s policies to abolish slavery.

In 1881, President James Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau, who was bitter about not being appointed to a government position, at a train station in Washington, D.C. Garfield died several months later from his wounds.

In 1901, while visiting the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, President William McKinley was killed by Leon Czolgosz, who saw the president as a symbol of oppression amid the social and economic tensions facing the country at that time.

Six decades later, in 1963, the United States witnessed the most famous assassination of an American president when John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas. Authorities accused Lee Harvey Oswald of shooting him while his motorcade passed, a incident that caused global shock and opened the door to numerous conspiracy theories. The political climate at the time was charged due to the Cold War, civil rights issues, and social unrest.

Today, the United States is experiencing a historic phase, leading up to one of the most challenging presidential elections in its history. The attempted assassination of Trump is a new incident added to his record of controversial events, making him one of the most unusual presidents in U.S. history.