US presidents targeted with bombs, guns and suicide planes in shocking assassination attempts

The President of the United States is a powerful and high-profile target, with dangerous enemies all over the world.

Attempts to assassinate presidents are not limited to gunpoint, but also involve poisoned packages, parcel bombs, roadside explosives, and even suicide bombings from the air.

Four of the 45 men who held the position of chief executive were assassinated in the line of duty.

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 that of the leader of the free world.

In the wake of Saturday’s shocking events in Butler, Pennsylvania, here’s a look at 14 of the strangest attempts on the life of our presidents — and the four times U.S. presidents have been assassinated in office. This information comes from the Library of Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as a variety of current and historical sources.

Assassination attempts against American presidents

2024: Donald Trump

A gunman on a rooftop fired multiple shots at the former president during an event broadcast live on national television as Trump campaigned, Saturday, July 13, 2024.

One of the bullets grazed his ear, inches from what could have been a fatal shot to the head. The rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was part of Trump’s effort to recapture the White House.

The alleged shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead, reportedly by Secret Service snipers. The investigation is ongoing.

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2016: Donald Trump

Michael Steven Sandford, a British citizen who had overstayed his tourist visa, tried to grab a firearm from a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officer at a Trump campaign rally on June 18. The man had taken shooting lessons at a shooting range the day before.

Sandford was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison after pleading guilty to several charges. Among those charges: illegal possession of a firearm.

2013: Barack Obama

James Everett Dutschke sent letters he had sprinkled with poisonous ricin to then-President Obama, “in what prosecutors called an elaborate plot to frame a rival,” according to a Politico report.

Dutschke also sent poisoned letters to Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, 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 not injured.

2011: Barack Obama

Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez opened fire on the White House, claiming Obama was “the devil” and “the antichrist,” federal authorities say.

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 semi-automatic rifle with a telescopic sight.

2006: George W. Bush

Vladimir Arutyunian interrupted a political rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, to throw a grenade at then-President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

The grenade, wrapped in cloth, landed 30 meters from 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 and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, was about to land in the Philippines when Secret Service agents discovered an explosive device on the motorcade’s planned route through Manila.

Agents quickly changed the route of the presidential motorcade, saving the president and first lady from a suspected al-Qaeda assassination attempt.

1994: Bill Clinton

Frank Eugene Corder flew a single-engine Cessna 150L propeller plane on the night of September 11, 1994, and attempted to crash it into the White House the next day to kill the president. Corder was killed when it crashed on the South Lawn.

There were no other casualties. Authorities said severe poisoning caused the White House to miss its target.

1981: Ronald Reagan

John Hinckley Jr. fired his .22-caliber revolver with “devastating” rounds at then-President Ronald Reagan and his security detail outside the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981, in Washington, D.C., in a disruptive attempt to get the attention of actress Jodie Foster.

Reagan, then 70, was injured when one of the bullets ricocheted off the limousine, hitting him below 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 Officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service Agent Tim McCarthy were also injured. White House Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the head and left 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 pointed a .45-caliber semi-automatic pistol at the president on September 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 gun’s cocked hammer, preventing Fromme from shooting Ford.

1974: Richard Nixon

In February 1974, Samuel Joseph Byck shot and killed a police officer and the co-pilot while attempting to hijack Delta Airlines Flight 523 on the ground at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

It involved an alleged plot to kill then-President Richard Nixon by crashing a DC-9 airliner into the White House.

Byck was carrying an incendiary device on board the plane and shot and wounded the pilot.

1947: Harry Truman

The Stern Gang, a Zionist militia from the pre-Israeli Middle East, sent several explosive devices to the White House in an attempt to kill then-President Harry Truman.

The mail staff discovered the explosives, which secret service bomb experts defused.

1912: Theodore Roosevelt

The rugged leader of the Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War proved his worth again at a campaign stop in Milwaukee as he seeks a third presidential term.

Roosevelt was shot in the chest, but was not admitted to the hospital until after delivering an 84-minute speech with a .38 revolver bullet lodged in his chest cavity.

Blood flowed from Roosevelt’s body and soaked his white shirt with a large crimson stain as he spoke.

1864: Abraham Lincoln

In August, Lincoln was riding from the White House to a retirement cottage three miles away when a “would-be assassin fired from near the road, knocking off his hat,” according to Smithsonian magazine.

The soldiers later found the hat on the road, with a bullet hole in 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 January 1835.

Lawrence aimed a single-shot pistol at Jackson inches away and pulled the trigger. The shell casing exploded, and noise and smoke filled the air, according to an official Senate.gov account, but the gunpowder did not ignite.

The assassinations of 4 American presidents

1963: John F. Kennedy

The president was shot dead in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. The event continues to haunt the country. In the eyes of millions of Americans, the crime remains unsolved.

The only suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was himself shot dead on live television two days later. His death helped fuel the 60 years of questions, controversies and conspiracy theories that followed.

1901: William McKinley

On September 6, 1901, in Buffalo, New York, Leon Czolgosz shot the president twice in the stomach at point-blank range. He died of his wounds eight days later.

“Chief Executive Victim of Cowardly Anarchist,” ran the front-page headline of the San Francisco Call. Witnesses beat Czolgosz nearly to death. He was convicted and executed a month later.

Congress ordered the Secret Service to protect the president after McKinley’s assassination.

1881: James Garfield

President Garfield was preparing to board a train in Washington, D.C. on July 2, less than four months after taking office, when he was shot twice by a disgruntled campaign supporter, Charles Guiteau.

The writer and lawyer said he was angry after being passed over for the post of ambassador to France.

Garfield suffered for 79 days before succumbing to his injuries. Guiteau was convicted and hanged in 1882.

1865: Abraham Lincoln

John Wilkes Booth, a famous stage actor, shot Lincoln point-blank in the back of the head on April 14, 1865, while the president was watching a play on the balcony of Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

The assassination came just days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his forces, ending the Civil War and the triumph of Lincoln and the Union forces.

Booth, “a staunch supporter of the Southern cause,” according to Britannica, then became the subject of a frantic manhunt. He was shot dead on April 26, 1865.