Trump breaks silence on 21-year-old intruder shot dead at Mar-a-Lago

by · Mail Online

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 while he was running in the 2024 presidential election. 

It was rare that Trump wasn't at Mar-a-Lago considering he spends most weekends during cold weather months at what has been dubbed the 'Winter White House.' Instead on Saturday night, the president and First Lady Melania stayed in Washington, DC attended the Governors' Dinner.

The early hours of Sunday morning, 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 shotgun 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.  

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
The remarks were Trump's first since Austin Tucker Martin, 21, of North Carolina was shot and killed after breaching Mar-a-Lago with a shotgun and a fuel can 
Police, showing an image of the shotgun, say he refused to drop the weapon and brought it to a shooting position before Secret Service agent fired and neutralized the threat

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. 

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'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.

Trump is no stranger to facing near-death experiences.  

On July 13, 2024 his ear was clipped when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Crooks was shot and killed by Secret Service providing on-scene security for the event. 

Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief and father, was shot and killed at the rally. Two other rally goers, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, were critically injured but survived. 

Just days later Trump went to the Republican National Convention and accepted his third straight nomination for the party's candidacy with a large bandage on his ear

Almost exactly two months later on September 15, 2024, Ryan Wesley Routh, 60, aimed a firearm through where he was hiding in the bushes outside Trump's Palm Beach club while he was golfing. 

After a Secret Service agent shot in the direction of the visible firearm barrel, Routh fled the scene. He was tracked down, arrested, charged with attempted assassination, among other crimes, and earlier this month was sentenced to life in prison.