Anthony Albanese texted US President Donald Trump following the assassination attempt in Washington on the weekend.

The Prime Minister, who infamously claimed the US President didn’t own a phone, contacted the US President after teacher Cole Allen allegedly shot at a US Secret Service agent while attempting to storm the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

It is unclear whether Mr Trump has responded.

While the PM sent a text message, other world leaders made a call.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to the US President on Sunday afternoon to express his “relief that the President and First Lady were safe,” following the “shocking scenes.”

Sir Keir struck up an initial warm relationship with the US President after the 2024 attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he spoke with the-then-presidential candidate that many world leaders were shunning and were desperately hoping would lose the election.

It was an investment that paid off in the US President’s first year of his second term, but has soured since the war in Iran.

The UK initially denied the US access to their joint base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to launch their initial strikes, and Sir Keir has vehemently opposed the attempted regime change by aerial bombardment.

So the overture is well-timed. It could also provide a smooth landing for King Charles III and Queen Camilla, who start their State Visit at the White House on Monday. Fresh in Mr Trump’s mind will be Sir Keir’s warm wishes, as opposed to the barney over Iran.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was equally swift. She also spoke to Mr Trump and after wrote on X that she had expressed her “solidarity with him” and the First Lady Melania Trump.

A swathe of leaders, especially those who have been in Mr Trump’s firing line, such as Italy’s Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni, France’s Emmanuel Macron, and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, have all issued condemnations of the attempted attack and support for the President.

European leaders are wise, even if opportunistic, to exploit the moment to try and get back into Mr Trump’s good books.

In truth, no one is letting the third attempted assassination of Donald Trump go to waste, least of all the US President and his supporters.

The United States’ gun culture should be front and centre, given that it is the third time a “lone wolf whack job,” as the President dubbed the alleged attacker Cole Allen, has obtained a gun and come scarily close to the President.

Allen, who has been charged with firearms and assault, was allegedly in search of Trump Administration officials, “likely including the President,” according to acting US Attorney-General Todd Blanche.

It has been a matter of only metres and millimetres in the case of the 2024 and pre-election attempt at Butler, Pennsylvania, that Mr Trump has avoided joining the ranks of becoming one of the US leaders, where “they got ‘em,” to use the President’s phrase.

In both of these instances, should the attempts have succeeded, the world would likely have watched the assassination of Mr Trump being streamed live on television.

Mr Trump denied that the US had a dangerous political culture compared to other countries.

“There’s great violence with all countries,” he said.

As he shrugged off any examination of the toxic mix of the United States deep polarisation and constitutional right to bear arms, he opened the door to a different kind of political debate.

“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!” he said on Truth Social.

Mr Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make way for a new ballroom has been the subject of intense political debate.

Democrats see the destruction of part of the historic building as a wider metaphor for Mr Trump’s wrecking ball-style.

But Mr Trump believes it is precisely because he is so unorthodox that he is a target, saying that only meaningful presidents are targeted and that he won’t be deterred.

“It comes with the territory, and if you want to do a great job ... take a look at what’s happened to some of our greatest presidents. It doesn’t happen to people that don’t do anything,” he said.

“They’re big names, and I hate to say I’m honoured by that,” singling out Abraham Lincoln as a past example

Exhibit A – the ballroom is ahead of schedule, and he is right to point out the security benefits of hosting major presidential gatherings on the grounds of the highly-protected White House, compared to hotels that are open to the public and guests.

Then there is the blame game.

MAGA influencers have been quick to point to “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as the radicalising or motivating factor behind Allen’s suspected attack, and in this paradigm, the “radical left,” Democrats and “fake news media” are all culprits.

Kari Lake, the former newsreader who advises the Trump Administration, said the security at the event was lax – the worst she had ever attended involving the President – but that the correspondents in the room were part of the wider cause.

“Remember, 90 per cent of the people in the room were part of the fake news who have spread abject and despicable lies about President Trump,” she wrote on X.

“They have sown so much division in our country. Mainstream media must take responsibility for the discord they have sewn across this great country.”

But what MAGA misses in its rush to blame everyone but gun laws is that the Hilton Hotel in Washington has been the site of an attempted Presidential assassination before — Ronald Reagan in 1981 - who was shot and seriously wounded leaving the venue.

Mr Trump confessed to having studied the assassinations of Presidents before him.