US President assassinations – Why POTUS is one of the deadliest jobs in politics

Statistically, being America’s president is one of the State’s most dangerous and deadliest jobs.

Of the 45 men who have occupied the Oval Office, eight have died in office, while those vying to occupy the White House have long been the target of assassination attempts. Four US presidents have been killed, including Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Three more, which now include Trump, have been injured in attacks.

On Saturday night the former US President was roughly six minutes into a speech in Butler when he suddenly reached for the side of his face as gunfire rang out. He then crouched and ran for cover before being rushed off the stage surrounded by Secret Service agents. Blood could be seen on his face and ear.

The 78-year-old was immediately taken from the rally in a motorcade while law enforcement cleared the area. The gunman, who is suspected to be a 20-year-old lone wolf identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by law enforcement agents and his body was later seen on top of a nearby roof.

Successful assassinations

‌Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln’s assassination in a booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC on April 14, 1865, is one of the most famous stories in US political history. He was killed by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and supporter of the Confederacy, who was angered by the then-president’s suggestion that voting rights should be extended to black Americans.

James A Garfield

Garfield had been president for just four months when he was shot at the train station in Washington, DC, on July 2, 1881. Charles Guiteau said he opened fire on the president because he was angry not to have been made Ambassador to France. Garfield suffered agonising injuries from two bullets that struck him in the shoulder and back and died 11 weeks later from an infection.

William McKinley

McKinley was shot in the abdomen at a fair in upstate New York state on September 6, 1901, by anarchist Leon Czolgosz, who was later sentenced to death. McKinley died eight days later from gangrene.

John F Kennedy

Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald as the presidential motorcade made its way through Dallas, Texas. The US leader was hit by two bullets in the head and back and pronounced dead half an hour later at the Parkland hospital.

Although an official investigation found that Oswald acted alone, a poll last year found that a majority of Americans believe he was part of a broader conspiracy.

Survivors of assassination attempts

‌Ronald Reagan

The last US president to have been injured in an assassination attempt, Ronald Reagan, was shot outside a hotel in Washington DC in March 1981, shortly after taking office. John Hinckley Jr, the would-be assassin, later said that he believed his attempt would impress Jodie Foster, an actor.

George HW Bush

Bush was targeted in an assassination plot orchestrated by a group of Kuwaiti and Iraqi operatives believed to be acting under orders from Saddam Hussein. They planned to kill him in January 1993, shortly after he had left office, using a car bomb.

‌Bill Clinton

There have been at least five attempts to assassinate Clinton, including one who sent a pipe bomb addressed to his wife, Hillary, and another who fired long-distance shots at the White House.

‌George W Bush

In May 2022, George W. Bush was the target of an assassination plot when an Iraqi citizen was arrested for assembling a team of ISIS sympathisers to kill the architect of the War on Terror. The suspect stated that the plot was driven by anger over the Iraq War.

‌Barack Obama

America’s first Black president, Barack Obama, faced numerous assassination plots from white supremacists and far-right groups. In 2013, a Mississippi Elvis impersonator was arrested after letters laced with the poison ricin were sent to Obama, but he was later released when police determined he was not involved. He remarked, “I don’t even like rice.” In 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, a 21-year-old conspiracy theorist, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for firing shots at the White House with the intent to kill Obama.

‌Joe Biden

In May 2023, a 19-year-old man was arrested after driving a rented van into a White House barrier. He later admitted to being a Nazi sympathiser and declared he was prepared to “kill the president” and “seize power.” He pleaded guilty to a charge of destroying federal property and faces up to ten years in prison, although he has not yet been sentenced.

‌Donald Trump

Trump has also faced several assassination attempts, including a 2016 incident in Las Vegas where Brit Michael Sandford tried to grab a gun from a police officer to shoot Trump. He was later sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison after he pleaded to being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm and disrupting an official function.