Over the weekend, in the sort of news story that likely would have been a much bigger deal in a different era, a 21-year-old man was shot dead as he approached the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
According to the Times, the 21-year-old man was named Austin Tucker Martin, and he “put a fuel can on the ground and appeared to aim his shotgun at it, according to law enforcement.” He was shot after he refused orders from Palm Beach police to drop the gun.
Per The Guardian, Martin was obsessed with the Epstein files.
“I don’t know if you read up on the Epstein Files, but evil is real and unmistakable … Tell other people about what you hear about the Epstein files and what the government is doing about it. Raise awareness,” he had texted a friend, according to that report.
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Trump was in Washington, and not at the estate, at the time of the incident. But on Monday, he finally broke his silence.
Per The Daily Mail, Trump addressed the incident at a White House event on Monday.
Trump: “I don’t know how long I’ll be around. I’ve got a lot of people gunning for me, don’t I?” pic.twitter.com/Boq5pxHxav
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 23, 2026
‘I don’t know how long I’ll be around,” the president said. “I have a lot of people gunning for me, don’t I?”
He also compared himself to presidents who have been assassinated in the past.
“They only go after consequential [presidents],’ Trump said, per the Daily Mail. “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.”
In the middle of the night while most Americans were asleep, the United States Secret Service acted quickly and decisively to neutralize a crazy person, armed with a gun and a gas canister, who intruded President Trump’s home. Federal law enforcement are working 24/7 to keep our… https://t.co/MYTsHqR4cx
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) February 22, 2026
Unlike the two attempts during the campaign in 2024, in Butler, Pa. in July, and at his Florida golf course in September, Trump was in no danger, as he was not even in the state at the time. The assassin in Butler, like Martin, was killed at the scene, while the man who brought a gun to the West Palm Beach golf course three months later, Ryan Routh, was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
