Shooting raises questions about Trump security

"I can't imagine that there's any profession that is more dangerous," President Donald Trump told reporters, just hours after he was at the centre of yet another major security incident.

While a small army of Secret Service agents make the president arguably the world's most protected person, keeping him safe is proving to be no easy task.

First there was the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 2024 in which a bullet grazed his ear. Just 64 days later, Trump was again the target of a would-be assassin as he played a round on his Florida golf course.

And now, hours after gunshots shattered the revelry of the White House Correspondents' Association dinner at Hilton hotel in the nation's capital, Trump's security is once again under scrutiny.

While the motive and precise target of the suspected shooter, 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, remain unclear, questions are mounting over how a gunman could get so close to the president.

Among them is the level of screening at the hotel hosting some of Washington's most high-profile politicians, diplomats and journalists.

Gary O'Donoghue, the BBC's Chief North America correspondent who was at the dinner, said while roads were closed around the Washington Hilton for hours, security at the venue itself "wasn't particularly heavy".

"The man on the door outside only took a cursory look at my ticket from what must have been six feet away," he wrote.

CCTV posted on social media by Trump shows the suspect charge through a Secret Service checkpoint which was located on the floor above the ballroom. Authorities have said he was in possession of a shotgun, handgun and multiple knives.

He exchanged gunfire with officers before being stopped.

CNN's Wolf Blitzer told the network he saw the suspect shoot several times using a "very very serious" weapon.

The president later posted a photo of a shirtless man on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back with Secret Service officers standing around him.

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC News it appeared as though he was targeting administration officials, "likely including the president".

Police have said Cole Tomas Allen was a guest at the Washington Hilton, which continued to operate as a hotel despite having some of the most powerful people in the world in the same building.

Former UK ambassador to Washington, Kim Darroch, who has attended correspondents' dinners before, was critical of the security setup.

"If you were there [as a hotel guest] and you had bad intentions about breaking into this dinner, there's just one security thing you had to get past... and then you're in the ballroom," he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.