By KATELYN CARALLE, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER
Published: 12:16 EST, 23 February 2026 | Updated: 12:29 EST, 23 February 2026
Donald Trump said he’s not sure how long he will be alive considering the amount of times people have tried to kill him.
At a White House event with angel families on Monday, the president spoke out for the first time since an armed man was shot and killed after breaching the perimeter at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
‘I don’t know how long I’ll be around,’ Trump said. ‘I have a lot of people gunning for me, don’t I?’
Trump faced two separate assassination attempts against him while he was running in the 2024 presidential election.
On Sunday, a 21-year-old from North Carolina attempted to sneak onto the grounds of the club that houses the president’s Florida residence with a gun and a gas can.
Austin Tucker Martin was shot and killed by Secret Service agents after he refused to drop his weapon and allegedly raised it to the firing position.
Trump’s event with family members of those killed by illegal immigrants on Monday were his first public remarks since the latest deadly incident.
He compared himself to presidents he says are the most consequential, including John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom were assassinated during their terms.
But then he realized being a ‘consequential’ president might mean assured death.
Donald Trump says ‘I have a lot of people gunning for me, don’t I?’ during a White House event with angel families on Monday, February 23, 2026
‘They only go after consequential [presidents],’ Trump gawked. ‘So maybe I want to be a little bit less consequential. Can we hold it back a little bit?’
‘Let’s be a normal president for a little while,’ he added.
In July Trump’s ear was clipped when Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was shot and killed by Secret Service on scene for the event.
Two months later in September, Ryan Wesley Routh aimed a firearm through the bushes around Trump’s Palm Beach club while he was golfing. He fled the scene but was tracked down, arrested, charged with attempted assassination, among other crimes, and earlier this month was sentenced to life in prison.