Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Apr. 27, 2026

April 27, 2026 · The White House · 0:25:02

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt briefed members of the media at the White House on April 27, 2026. She noted she had expected Friday’s briefing to be her last before maternity leave, but returned “given the attempted assassination of the president and ’top Trump administration officials,’ as the depraved shooter noted in his manifesto, at the White House Correspondents Association dinner on Saturday evening.” The shooting, she said, was “the third major assassination attempt against President Trump in two years. No other president in history has faced such repeated serious attempts on his life.”

She thanked the law enforcement professionals who responded, “especially… the heroic agent who took a bullet to the chest. Thankfully, he was saved by his bulletproof vest,” and said the President had spoken with the agent that day. Leavitt, who said she was seated next to the President and First Lady when the shots were fired, described his calm as “really remarkable to witness.” She attributed the violence to “a systemic demonization of him and his supporters” and argued that those who label the President “a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points are fueling this kind of violence.” She also tied the response to funding: “Saturday night served as yet another reminder of how important it is to fund the Department of Homeland Security. It is shameful that the United States Congress has kept this vital agency defunded for 73 days — the longest shutdown of a federal agency in US history,” noting the Secret Service is a component of DHS. She opened by previewing that day’s welcome of King Charles and Queen Camilla for the state visit, with preparations led by the First Lady.

Why it matters

The April 27 briefing is the administration’s first full on-record account of the Correspondents’ Dinner shooting from the podium — the attempt count as the White House states it, the wounded agent’s condition, and the rhetoric and DHS-funding arguments the administration built on the attack. It is recorded on the Elections & Governance hub alongside the President’s own remarks of April 25.

Scoreboard watch

The DHS funding figure as stated by the Press Secretary — the agency defunded for 73 days, described as the longest agency shutdown in U.S. history — is recorded here as the administration’s stated baseline for the funding fight.

Sources: The White House, “Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Briefs Members of the Media, Apr. 27, 2026,” The White House, April 27, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by Press Secretary Leavitt at the briefing.