This is the third shooting or attempted shooting that has taken place around Donald Trump in just the last few years. It's become something of a pattern.

I was also in Butler, Pennsylvania on 13 July 2024 when 20-year-old Thomas Crooks shot at Trump, and the feeling in Washington is very similar to what I experienced that day.

Despite having just experienced another shooting, Trump seems in a buoyant mood.

But the prospect of being in a position in which he could be in danger appears to be something that Donald Trump has thought about, repeatedly.

"I can't imagine there's any profession that's more dangerous," Trump said in the briefing room.

Trump, and many close to him, have previously said that the shooting in Butler, perhaps more than anything else, marked a pivotal moment for the US president.

Even with a lack of clarity on what led to the shooting, tonight's events will almost certainly mark another one.

President Trump's comments that the job is inherently dangerous are apt. Tonight's incident took place inside the same hotel in which President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.

(Source: BBC)