AARON PATRICK: Donald Trump lashes out at journalist after Washington DC assassination attempt

The smell of gunpowder wafting through the Washington Hilton Hotel’s ballroom was a telltale sign that the loud noise just outside the doors wasn’t a tray hitting the floor, which was Donald Trump’s initial assumption.

Within seconds, Secret Service agents had surrounded the president and were ushering him and First Lady Melania Trump away from the dais at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

At that moment, Mr Trump did something unusual, and which demonstrated how he thinks in a crisis: he tried to stop.

“I wanted to see what was happening and I wasn’t making it that easy for the Secret Service,” he said on Sunday

The bodyguards pleaded with him: “Please go down on the floor.”

He did. So did the first lady. Vice-President JD Vance had already been pulled up from his chair, literally, and run out of the room, which meant the president may have been exposed to danger a fraction longer than his deputy.

‘You’re a disgrace’

Two hours later at the White House, which is about 2km from the Hilton, Mr Trump held a press conference in which he called for the dinner — apparently he had prepared an edgy speech — to be rescheduled within the next month.

On Sunday, the president spoke to the American 60 Minutes program. The interview was an example of why he retains such a strong core of supporters despite his administration’s chaotic style.

Determined and defiant, almost to the point of jockularity, the target of three known assassination attempts said he wasn’t worried about being shot on Saturday.

Allen, the 31-year-old Californian science teacher who entered the hotel with a shotgun, charged through a Secret Service metal detector towards the ballroom so fast “the NFL should sign him up,” Mr Trump told journalist Norah O’Donnell.

“Some of these people they may be crazy but they’re not stupid,” he said.

When O’Donnell read from an explanation for the attack written by Allen that was sent to relatives not long beforehand, the journalist got a taste of presidential aggression.

Allen, who donated to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, called the president a paedophile, a rapist and a traitor. “I am no longer willing to permit (him) ... to coat my hands with his crimes,” Allen said, according to O’Donnell.

“I was waiting for you to read that because you are horrible people,” Mr Trump said.

“You read that crap from some sick person. You shouldn’t be reading that on 60 Minutes. You’re a disgrace.”

Civil war

He didn’t raise his voice or threaten to walk out. The interview continued, and Mr Trump promised stronger security if the ball is held again.

When asked what could be done about political violence in the US — several relatives of slain politicians and activists were present Saturday night — Mr Trump said it wasn’t new. He didn’t proffer solutions.

Opinion polls show that America hasn’t been as politically polarised in the modern era. Ordinary members of both sides talk honestly about the prospect of civil war.

That anger is clearly driving disturbed people to acts of extreme violence that are becoming more common. Rather than being an exceptional moment in Mr Trump’s presidency, the ball hit looks like an unusually well-covered example of anti-government violence.

After the drama, some guests continued to party, and were praised for doing so.

Mr Trump will almost certainly emerge from the attack strengthened, politically. Even Anthony Albanese, whose entire career has been dedicated to policies the MAGA movement detests, wanted credit for sending the president a “hope you’re ok” text.

That’s the kind of president he is. Even his opponents have to ingratiate themselves with him.

This demonstrates that, unless his enemies kill him, Trump will continue to rule America and as much as the world as possible in an unapologetically Trumpian style: bold and brash with plenty of swagger.