{"id":919436,"date":"2026-04-26T09:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/919436\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T09:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T09:34:13","slug":"violence-has-no-place-eu-leaders-condemn-attack-at-trump-dinner-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/919436\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Violence has no place\u2019: EU leaders condemn attack at Trump dinner \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas struck a similar tone, warning<\/a> that \u201cpolitical violence has no place in a democracy,\u201d and noting that an event meant to celebrate a free press \u201cshould never become a scene of fear.\u201d <\/p>\n

National leaders echoed the message. <\/p>\n

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said<\/a> he was \u201cshocked by the scenes\u201d Saturday night in Washington, decrying any attack on democratic institutions and press freedom as unacceptable. Spain\u2019s Pedro S\u00e1nchez condemned <\/a>the attack, writing: \u201cViolence is never the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also expressed<\/a> \u201cfull solidarity\u201d with Trump and those present, warning that \u201cno political hatred can find space in our democracies\u201d and that leaders \u201cwill not allow fanaticism to poison the places of free debate and information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Authorities said a \u201clone actor,\u201d armed with a shotgun and other weapons, charged a security checkpoint<\/a> outside the annual dinner late Saturday and exchanged gunfire with security forces. The incident triggered panic inside the ballroom as Trump and other dignitaries were rushed from the stage.<\/p>\n

Trump initially signaled<\/a> he wanted to resume the event before abandoning the idea as security concerns mounted. \u201cWe very much wanted to continue it,\u201d he said at a press conference shortly after the incident, adding that he would not let \u201cthese sick people \u2026 change the fabric of our life.\u201d <\/p>\n

One Secret Service officer was struck in his bullet-proof vest but is \u201cdoing great,\u201d the president said, praising the rapid response.<\/p>\n

The suspect, identified as a 31-year-old man from California, was taken into custody<\/a> and is expected to face multiple firearm-related charges, including assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas struck a similar tone, warning that \u201cpolitical violence has no place in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[11783,31,32,2000,299,5187,20218,805,2596,807,2003,5338,811,104,15,49,1220,1116],"class_list":["post-919436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-antonio-costa","tag-democracy","tag-donald-trump","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-firearms","tag-foreign-policy","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-keir-starmer","tag-law-enforcement","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-security","tag-spain","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-weapons"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116470328090365870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}