‘Got a lot of people gunning for me’
President Trump made his first public remarks about the gunman or intruder who was shot and killed by the Secret Service as he entered Mar-a-Lago’s grounds earlier on Sunday, February 22, 2026.
21 years old, Austin Tucker Martin from North Carolina tried to sneak into Mar-a-Lago while carrying a gun and a gas can and was shot by Secret Service agents after he refused to drop the weapon.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a podium in the White House.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be around,” he told his audience Monday in the White House East Room. “Got a lot of people gunning for me.”
The president, who survived two assassination attempts in 2024, joked that maybe he should be “a little bit less consequential” in order to stop drawing such attention.
“You read about all these crazy shooters, but they only go after consequential presidents,” he said at his Angel Families event at the White House on Monday. “They don’t go after non-consequential presidents.”
Austin Tucker Martin, 21, of Cameron, North Carolina, was ID’d as the gunman killed by Secret Service agents at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Citing Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, Trump reiterated, “They were consequential,” adding, “They only go after consequential. So maybe I want to be a little bit less consequential.”
The audience chuckled politely in response.
Trump was not a Mar-a-Lago at the time of the incident. On Saturday night, he and first lady Melania hosted a dinner with governors at the White House.
But the president sounded philosophical on Monday as he spoke to the families who lost a loved one to a crime committed by an illegal migrant, noting his own mortality.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be around,” he told his audience in the White House East Room.
“Got a lot of people gunning for me, don’t I?”
He praised the angel families as the “bravest people” and said they gave him a warm feeling.
“This is a group of people that, for whatever reason, I just feel, maybe the warmest of them,” he said.
The intruder, Martin, was discovered on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago about 1:30 am on Sunday morning, carrying a rifle and a gas can.
He was “ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with them,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters during a press conference Sunday.
Secret Service agents stand guard outside Mar-a-Lago.
“At which time he put down the gas can and raised the shotgun to a shooting position.”
The agents guarding the president’s Palm Beach home opened fire and “neutralized the threat.”
The incident at Mar-a-Lago took place just a few miles from Trump’s West Palm Beach club, where Ryan Routh tried to assassinate the president while he played golf during the 2024 election.
Routh was spotted by Secret Service agents and stopped before he could carry out his threat. He was sentenced to life in prison earlier this month.
Trump also survived an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024. Gunman Thomas Crooks fired eight shots, grazing the president’s ear and killing an attendee before he was taken out by a Secret Service counter sniper.
