【Trump on journalist dinner shooting: 'Not that dramatic — I walked out myself']

After a gunman broke into the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, President Donald Trump made his first public statement about the incident, revealing he defied Secret Service agents' evacuation orders during the attack.

In an interview with the media, Trump said that when 31-year-old suspect Cole Thomas Allen — from Torrance, California — entered the event at the Washington Hilton Hotel, shot a police officer in the chest, and was apprehended, he refused to be immediately moved to safety.

"There was definitely a personal element — I wanted to see what was happening, and I didn’t let them take me away too easily," Trump said. "I wanted to understand the situation — and then we realized it might be a big problem. A very unusual kind of trouble — really bad." He described how, when agents urged him to take cover, he told them to wait. "I may have slowed them down a bit. I said, 'Wait, wait — let me see. Just a second.' Then I started walking, and they said, 'Please lie down, please lie down.' So I lay down, and the First Lady did too as well." When host Nora O'Donnell suggested Trump had crawled away from the scene, he rejected the claim, insisting he had walked out — "Not that dramatic."

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated officials believe Allen traveled from California to Chicago by train before heading to Washington, checking in to the hotel under guest status ahead of the annual event. After examining his electronic devices and written records, law enforcement officials concluded he had planned to target members of the Trump administration attending the event. "He clearly intended to target government employees — likely including the president," Blanche told reporters. Allen faces charges including using a dangerous weapon to assault a police officer and is expected to face additional charges.

The case remains under further investigation, with law enforcement agencies assessing the suspect's motive and evaluating whether there are other potential threats. Trump himself emphasized that the incident was not as serious as some outside reports portrayed, reiterating that he personally walked out of the venue.

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1863672288859136/

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