From Lincoln to Trump – all of the profitable and tried assassinations on US Presidents

From Lincoln and JFK to recent alleged plots involving Trump, US presidents have faced repeated assassination threats: four were killed in office, others survived shootings and attacks

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From Abraham Lincoln’s fatal shooting in 1865 to the recent attempted attacks on Donald Trump, US presidents have repeatedly been targets for assassins. Four presidents have been killed in office and several others have survived dramatic plots.

All four men who successfully killed a sitting president died soon after. And those who failed to kill a president often faced life-changing punishment.

Nevertheless, some historic cases still carry unanswered questions, including long-running debate and mystery. Many will also be surprised to learn that although the overwhelming majority of assassins and would-be assassins have been male, there have been striking exceptions when two separate women tried to kill a president.

Here are all the successful and attempted assassinations on US Presidents:

Successful assassinations

William McKinley (September 6, 1901): McKinley was shot at point-blank range by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Czolgosz was an anarchist who viewed McKinley as a symbol of government corruption.

McKinley died eight days later from gangrene. Czolgosz was consequently executed by electric chair on October, 29, 1901 at Auburn Prison in New York.

John F. Kennedy (November 22, 1963): Kennedy was shot from a distance by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in an open motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Oswald’s motives remain a subject of debate, though he was a self-proclaimed Marxist with ties to the Soviet Union.

Kennedy was pronounced dead 30 minutes after the shooting. Oswald was killed two days later by Jack Ruby.

James A. Garfield (July 2, 1881): Garfield was shot at a D.C. train station by Charles Guiteau. Guiteau was a disgruntled office-seeker who believed Garfield owed him a diplomatic post.

Moreover, Garfield survived for 80 days but died in September due to infection and poor medical treatment. Guiteau was publicly executed by hanging on June, 30, 1882.

Abraham Lincoln (April 14 1865): Lincoln was shot in the back of the head by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Booth, a Confederate sympathiser, hoped to destabilise the Union government at the end of the Civil War.

As a result, Lincoln died the following morning and Booth was killed by Union troops 12 days later.

Attempted assassinations

Donald Trump (2024–2026): In July 2024, Trump was wounded in the ear during a rally in Butler, PA, by Thomas Matthew Crooks. In September 2024, a gunman with a rifle, Ryan Routh, was spotted in bushes at Trump’s Florida golf club before he could fire.

And on Saturday, (April 24), a gunman identified as Cole Tomas Allen was apprehended after firing shots near a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C.. While a Secret Service agent was shot (protected by a vest), Trump was unharmed.

Barack Obama (November 11, 2011): Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, a 21-year-old from Idaho, pulled his car over on Constitution Avenue and fired a semi-automatic rifle at the White House.

Ortega-Hernandez believed he was a “modern-day Jesus” on a “mission from God” to kill President Obama, whom he referred to as the “Antichrist”.

Secret Service initially dismissed the gunfire as a gang-related shooting nearby. It took four days to realise the building had been hit after a housekeeper noticed broken glass.

Obama was not home at the time and Ortega-Hernandez was sentenced to 25 years in prison

George W. Bush (2001-2005): In May 2005, while President Bush was speaking at Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia, a man named Vladimir Arutyunian threw a live Soviet-made RGD-5 hand grenade toward the podium.

The grenade landed only 61 feet away from Bush but failed to explode because it was wrapped too tightly in a red handkerchief, which prevented the firing pin from releasing.

In 2001, a man fired several shots toward the White House while Bush was in the residence, and in 2008, an Iraqi journalist famously threw both of his shoes at the President during a press conference.

Bill Clinton (October 29, 1994): Francisco Martin Duran stood at the White House fence and emptied a 30-round magazine from a semi-automatic rifle into the building.

However, Duran targeted a group of men on the lawn, specifically aiming at a tourist whose hairstyle he mistook for Clinton’s.

As Duran tried to reload, he was tackled by heroic bystanders, including Ken Davis and Robert Haines, who held him until the Secret Service arrived. President Clinton was inside the White House watching a football game and was never in direct danger.

Ronald Reagan (March 30, 1981): Reagan was shot and seriously wounded outside a Washington hotel by John Hinckley Jr. Hinckley was obsessed with actress Jodie Foster and believed killing the president would impress her.

Gerald Ford (September 1975): Ford survived two attempts in California within 17 days. Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme’s gun misfired, and Sara Jane Moore missed her shot after a bystander intervened.

Richard Nixon (1972 and 1974): In 1972, Arthur Bremer followed Nixon with the intent to shoot him but could never get a clear shot. He later shot Governor George Wallace instead.

In 1974, Samuel Byck attempted to hijack a commercial aircraft at Baltimore-Washington International Airport with the plan to crash it into the White House to kill Nixon

Harry S. Truman (November 1, 1950): Two Puerto Rican nationalists attempted to storm Blair House. As a result, a fierce gun battle ensued, resulting in the death of a White House police officer and one attacker.

Truman was left unharmed.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (February 15, 1933): As President-elect, Roosevelt was the target of an assassination attempt in Miami, Florida, by an Italian immigrant named Giuseppe Zangara. Roosevelt was unharmed, but the Mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, was fatally wounded by one of the shots.

Theodore Roosevelt (October 14, 1912): Roosevelt was shot in the chest by John Schrank while campaigning for a third term. The bullet was slowed by a thick manuscript and an eyeglass case.

As a result, Roosevelt famously delivered his full 90-minute speech before seeking medical aid.

Andrew Jackson (January 30, 1835): Richard Lawrence attempted to fire two pistols at point-blank range. Miraculously, both misfired.

Jackson reportedly beat the attacker with his cane until aides intervened.

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