Posts claim Obama was targeted by 11 assassination attempts. We reviewed the evidence

After a shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C., on April 25, 2026, that allegedly targeted U.S. President Donald Trump, a Republican, a rumor spread that Democratic former President Barack Obama had been the target of 11 assassination plots. 

The claim appeared on Reddit, where a user shared the screenshot of a BlueSky post that said no one remembered these plots because they'd been handled "professionally" and Obama hadn't publicly complained about them (archived):

The screenshot read:

Barack Obama was targeted 11 times in assassination attempts during this two terms. I bet you don't remember any of them because they were handled through proper channels, professionally, and he isn't a whiny b****.

The rumor further spread on X, and Snopes readers searched the website and emailed seeking to confirm its veracity.

Snopes identified 14 convictions against men in the U.S. who'd either threatened or plotted to kill Obama on the U.S. Department of Justice website and on PACER, a U.S. government website that makes it possible to access federal court documents electronically. We identified two more reported plots abroad from news reports. 

We also found two reported plots that did not lead to convictions, one because the prosecutor dropped the charges and a second because the suspect's wife killed him (she reportedly said he was violent and abusive, and that he had a plan to kill Obama).

These threats and plots began during Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, while he was a U.S. senator from Illinois.

In one instance, authorities apprehended a man after he shot at the White House, where he reportedly thought Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were (they were not present at the time of the shooting). In all other instances we identified, the authorities foiled the plots and investigated the threats before Obama was in immediate physical danger.

Further, we did not include security incidents in which one of Obama's family members, such as his wife or daughters, were targeted.

We reached out to the FBI, the Secret Service and the Obama Foundation to ask whether the below list is complete. We will update this report should they respond. Until then, we've left the claim unrated.

Reported and confirmed threats and plots

In 2008, Obama faced six reported threats on his life and plots to assassinate him that resulted in convictions or investigations:

• Paul Schlesselman of Arkansas pleaded guilty to plotting against several Black people in the U.S., including then-presidential candidate Obama. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
• In Colorado, three men — Tharin Gartrell, Shawn Adolf and Nathan Johnson — were investigated for allegedly plotting to assassinate Obama, but the prosecutor eventually declined to charge them. 
• In North Carolina, Jerry Blanchard was convicted of making threats to kill Obama.
• In Florida, Raymond H. Geisel was arrested after he reportedly made threats to kill Obama, as an affidavit in the original complaint showed. He was later convicted of possession of a firearm and ammunition after having been committed to a mental institution.
• In November 2008, a former Marine named Kody Ray Brittingham in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, made threats against Obama, then the president-elect. He was sentenced to 100 months in prison in 2010.
• In December 2008, a Maine woman named Amber Cummings killed her husband, James Cummings. She reportedly said it was because she feared he would sexually abuse their 9-year-old daughter. The FBI notes on the case revealed the man had ties to white supremacist groups and was very upset that Obama had just been elected. He also had applied to join a Nazi group.

In 2009, a Syrian man was reportedly arrested in Turkey on suspicion he was plotting to kill Obama. We could not find official documents confirming details of this case. 

In 2011, Snopes identified two plots against the former president. One took place in Ireland, where Dublin authorities reportedly arrested a man, Khalid Kelly (a name he took when he converted to Islam), for threatening Obama. 

The same year in the U.S., Oscar Ramiro Ortega Hernandez of Idaho shot at the White House in an attempt to, per his associates, "take out Obama." Neither Barack nor Michelle Obama was at the White House at the time, though their daughter Sasha and Michelle Obama's mother were in the residence. Ortega Hernandez received a 25-year prison sentence.

In 2012, U.S. authorities dismantled a militia group made up of soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia. The group had plotted to ultimately assassinate Obama. Its leader, Army Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, pleaded guilty to a double murder intended to prevent the group from being revealed.

Also in 2012, Mitchell Kusick of Colorado was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill Obama. In 2013 he pleaded guilty to making such a threat and was sentenced to time served. 

In April 2013, James Everett Dutschke of Mississippi addressed a letter laced with ricin to Obama. He was indicted in June 2013 and pleaded guilty in 2014 of sending poisoned letters to Obama as well as Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Lee County, Mississippi, Justice Court Judge Sadie Holland.

Also in 2013, Glendon Scott Crawford, a man in New York, was found guilty of developing "death rays." The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision after Crawford appealed his case said he intended to discharge "dangerous amounts of radiation to kill Muslims and others, including President Barack Obama" and affirmed his conviction.

In 2014, an Uzbek man who lived in Brooklyn, New York, Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, was arrested and later found to have threatened to kill Obama as "an act of martyrdom on behalf of" the Islamic State group. 

In 2017, Stephen Taubert of Syracuse, New York, made threats against Obama by phone. A jury convicted him in 2019. By that point, Obama was no longer U.S. president.

Also in 2017, the authorities arrested Larry Mitchell Hopkins in New Mexico. Among other things, the complaint stated he and his group had trained to assassinate Obama and others. He was later convicted of being a felon in possession of firearms. 

In October 2018, Cesar Sayoc mailed 16 explosive devices from Florida. Although there were no reported injuries, his targets included Obama and Democratic former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Sayoc pleaded guilty to 65 felonies in 2019.

Taylor Taranto, who live-streamed the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, was arrested on multiple charges related to his actions that day. In 2023, in a memorandum in support of pre-trial detention, Assistant U.S. Attorney Allison Ethen said Taranto had made threats against Obama on YouTube and Telegram. Taranto was convicted of carrying firearms without a license and other charges in 2025.

For further reading, Snopes has covered many rumors on the WHCA dinner shooting, including a claim that the suspect worked as a driver for NBC News anchor Savannah Guthrie.