Multiple presidents, former presidents or candidates have survived assassination attempts

In the pre-Civil War era, President Andrew Jackson was shot at while attending a funeral in the Capitol. The shooter fired twice, but the gun failed.

Former President Theodore Roosevelt, like Trump, was trying to get his old job back during the 1912 campaign. He was shot on the way to a speech in Milwaukee by a saloon keeper. Roosevelt later said a folded-up copy of his 50-page speech slowed the bullet, which stayed in his body for the rest of his life. He gave the speech despite the shooting.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was president-elect when a would-be assassin fired at him in Miami in 1933. The shooter, Guiseppe Zangara, missed Roosevelt but killed Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. He was put to death by electrocution.

Harry Truman, who took over the presidency after Roosevelt died, was shot at across from the White House by Puerto Rican nationalists in 1950.

Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist who was running for president for the third time in 1972, was shot after a campaign event outside Washington, DC. The shooting left him paralyzed from the waist down, and he later rethought his politics.

Gerald Ford faced two assassination attempts in quick succession in 1975. Lynette “Sqeaky” Fromme, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson, was foiled before she could fire at Ford in Sacramento, California. Weeks later, a woman named Sara Jane Moore shot at Ford in San Francisco but missed because a bystander grabbed her.

Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981 outside the Hilton in Washington, DC, after giving a speech. His press secretary, James Brady, was more seriously wounded than Reagan and later became an activist for gun control. Reagan’s shooter, John Hinckley, spent decades in a mental institution. He was released from court supervision in 2022.

An Idaho man was charged with the attempted assassination of Barack Obama when he fired shots at the White House in 2011.

All presidents face threats and all former presidents also get lifetime Secret Service protection.