American presidents may want to avoid events at the Washington Hilton. It does not have to do with the hotel facilities or location. In fact the place is a historic 1 107-room landmark on Connecticut Avenue, known for its Modernist "gull-wing" design by William B. Tabler, iconic International Ballroom, and central location between Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan in the nation’s capital. Built between 1962-1965, it offers extensive meeting space, four dining venues, and a notable "President’s Walk.” It is renowned as a premier event venue, featuring 116 000 sq ft of space, with the mentioned International Ballroom (30,000 sq ft) capable of hosting 2 670 people.
The hotel is also known for the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, only 70 days into his presidency. The shooter was John Hinckley Jr., a 25-year-old mentally disturbed young man, obsessed with actress Jodie Foster after watching her at the Martin Scorses’s 1976 masterpiece Taxi Driver. Prior to the shooting Hinckley tried to contact Foster several times. He sent her poems, letters, and called her while she attended Yale University, but she never reciprocated his interest and was terrified by his stalking. Later Hinckley admitted that he shot Reagan to impress Foster.
Jodie Foster’s testimony was presented to the jury during John Hinckley Jr.'s 1982 trial, but it was via a videotaped deposition rather than a live in-person appearance. The taped testimony, recorded in secret sessions, was part of the defense's effort to prove Hinckley was insane due to his obsession with her. In the tape Foster testified she "never had any relationship" with Hinckley. The jury also heard tape-recorded phone calls between Hinckley and Foster and read his "lover-type" letters. Hinckley rushed out of the courtroom when Foster’s testimony was played.
María Cristina Rosas, a professor and researcher in the faculty of political and social sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City.
Ronald Reagan was at the Washington Hilton to address the AFL-CIO. After that, he was walking to reach his car when six shots were fired in less than two seconds. Reagan was hit under his left armpit. Others wounded included Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, policeman Thomas Delahanty, and Press Secretary James Brady, who sustained permanent brain damage -he was the most badly hurt by the shooting, and although he survived the wound left him with slurred speech, partial memory and partial paralysis that required full-time use of a wheelchair. Secret Service and police officers forced Hinckley to the ground and arrested him.
Agent Jerry Parr immediately forced Reagan into the limo, deciding to drive to George Washington University Hospital rather than the White House, a decision credited with saving the president's life.
Reagan was 70 years old at the time of the shooting and fully recovered after 12 days. John Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 and was confined to St. Elizabeths Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Washington, D. C. for over 30 years. When Brady died in 2014, the doctor who took care of him ruled he was murdered, suggesting the wounds he received back in 1981 were the primary cause of his passing. The case against Hinckley was not reopened since he was considered mentally disabled at the time of the shooting.
In 2016 a federal judge ruled that Hinckley was no longer a danger to himself or others, allowing him to live full-time with his mother under strict monitoring. In 2022 the final restrictions were lifted, allowing him to live freely and pursue his interests in music and art. He has his own channel on YouTube and upon his release he claimed, “it is time for rock and roll!”
The Washington Hilton assassination attempt against Reagan was again an issue that attracted a lot of attention last Saturday April 25, when a man identified as Cole Tomas Allen, who was a guest at the hotel, shot between six and eight times being later forced to the ground by Secret Service officials. He did not make it to the room where Donald Trump was attending the White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Yet serious concerns about the security of the president -and the vice-president who was also attending the event- are increasing. This is the third security incident against President Trump that adds to the 2024 Pennsylvania attempt when he was campaigning and later the Florida Golf course where a man identified as Ryan Wesley Routh was spotted with a rifle at Trump International Golf Club while Trump was playing on the course.
Despite the seriousness of these threats, about the most recent one President Trump has suggested that this incident would have not developed if the new White House ballroom that is under construction but subject to litigation existed, adding that the Washington Hilton is not secure.
While initially announced in July 2025 at an estimated $200 million, the project of the White House ballroom costs doubled by December 2025. The construction, planned to replace the East Wing, is intended to be financed through private donations, although a judge has halted the project. The justification for this “renovation” is to eliminate the need for tents during large, formal state dinners and to increase security for the President and his guests.
But the security of the President seems to be compromised due to his way of polarizing Americans. Polarization has dramatically increased in the US under Trump. Here are some figures: according to a Syracuse University research partisan hostility is surging. By 2022, 72% of Republicans and 63% of Democrats viewed the opposing party as immoral, up significantly from 47% and 35% in 2016. A Brown University study suggests polarization accelerated in the US faster than in other democracies, particularly among highly politically involved individuals.
The reasons behind these figures are race, immigration, gender, and the SARS-CoV2 pandemic. Brookings confirms that Trump’s presidency and the polarization fueling it are resulting in a resurgence of federalism. After decades of federal expansion across administrations, it says, states are now taking independent action, with Republican and Democratic states increasingly following divergent paths. If this trend continues, it is possible that even after Trump’s tenure, the country will remain fundamentally divided, making political concertation on key issues more difficult.
A poll released in 2025 by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression found that 34 per cent of US college students now believe violence is justified in some circumstances to stop a campus speech. In other words: new generation believe violence is acceptable against people who think differently!
According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in August 2025, what makes proud Americans differs substantially between Republicans and Democrats, as shown in the attached chart.
Beyond that, several incidents show how far polarization has gone. On June 14, 2025, Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot and seriously injured. Then, a couple of hours later, the leader of the state House Democratic caucus Melissa Hoffman and her husband were shot and killed. This happened in Minnesota. The shooter, a 57-year-old man identified as an anti-abortion advocate Vance Luther Boelter, had a list of other political figures that it seems were going to face the same destiny as the Hortman’s and the Hoffman’s.
Then on September 10 of the same year, Charlie Kirk, an American right-wing political activist and media personality, was shot at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, while speaking at an outdoor campus debate. The killer, a 22-year-old identified as Tyler James Robinson, surrendered to the police the following day.
Together with the Donald Trump presumed assassination attempts, this violence seems to be growing on the grounds of rejecting others’ ideas. “Either you think like me or you could get shot”, seems to be the message. Yet it does not help that in the case of the Hoffman’s and Charlie Kirk assassinations, President Trump blamed the democrats even when it was known later that both shooters were supporters of Trump. Rather than condemning violence and calling for unity, the President of the United States accused his political opposition of being accessories to murder. And at Charlie Kirk memorial, Trumps remarks were “I hate my opponents.” It is well known that what politicians, media personalities, influencers and such say impacts the views of citizens. An invitation to hate opponents makes hate stronger and opens the door to more political and dangerous polarization.
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by María Cristina Rosas, a professor and researcher in the faculty of political and social sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Rosas can be reached via email at: mcrosas@prodigy.net.mx
