It was 10:31 p.m. on Saturday when President Trump walked into the White House briefing room, still dressed in his tuxedo and bow tie, to talk about what may have been yet another attempt on his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, thank you very much,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was very unexpected!\u201d<\/p>\n
Moments before he walked out, the president posted surveillance footage of a suspect making a mad dash through the cavernous halls of the Washington Hilton. That\u2019s where Mr. Trump was attending the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner when gunfire broke out at the hotel. Very little was clear about whatever had happened there, a mile and a half up the hill.<\/p>\n
But the president wanted to talk about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always shocking when something like this happens,\u201d he said, standing with the first lady, the vice president, the defense secretary, the secretary of state, the acting attorney general, the F.B.I. director and the press secretary \u2014 all still in their evening wear from the dinner.<\/p>\n
But, really, he argued, the whole thing was just the latest example of why he needs to build his maximum-security, legally challenged ballroom at the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to say this,\u201d he said, \u201cbut this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we\u2019re planning at the White House. It\u2019s actually a larger room, and it\u2019s a much more secure. It\u2019s got \u2014 it\u2019s drone proof, it\u2019s bulletproof glass.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then he gave the first question of the night to Weijia Jiang, the CBS News correspondent and the president of the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association, who had been seated next to him at the dinner before pandemonium broke out.<\/p>\n
\u201cMadam chairman,\u201d he said, \u201cI just want to say you did a fantastic job. What a beautiful evening.\u201d (Mr. Trump does not usually speak this way to the reporters who cover him.)<\/p>\n
She asked him what was going through his mind when he realized his life may have been in danger again. He told the tale: He was sitting with the first lady on his other side when he heard a noise he thought sounded familiar and nonthreatening. \u201cI thought it was a tray going down,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve heard that many times, and it was a pretty loud noise, and it was from quite far away.\u201d<\/p>\n
His wife was not so sure, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMelania was very cognizant, I think, of what happened,\u201d he explained. \u201cI think she knew immediately what happened. She was saying, \u2018That\u2019s a bad noise.\u2019\u201d She looked quite stoic behind him in the briefing room. The only word she spoke during the news conference was \u201cNo,\u201d after being asked if she would like to say anything at all. The president said that it was \u201ca rather traumatic experience for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
He described being \u201cwhisked away,\u201d thanked law enforcement profusely and said \u201cthere wasn\u2019t a whole lot of time to be thinking, because it was a matter of seconds before we were out the door.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the whole, Mr. Trump\u2019s response from the podium late Saturday evening was remarkably zen from a man who has survived two assassination attempts, and whose wife was just ducking under a table while gun-toting agents bum-rushed the ballroom around them.<\/p>\n
Who knows how or if the president\u2019s mind-set, his rhetoric, his political instincts or his security apparatus may change in the coming days or weeks. Very little was revealed at the news conference about the suspect\u2019s motivations.<\/p>\n
Still, Mr. Trump kept downplaying any insinuation that this latest scare would alter how he goes about his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like not to think about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI lead a pretty normal life, considering, you know, it\u2019s a dangerous life. I think I\u2019m, I think I handle it as well \u2014 as well as it can be handled.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cTo be honest with you, I\u2019m not a basket case.\u201d<\/p>\n