And we blew up New York before it was cool.

We're quite comfortable with watching our country get violently deconstructed in all sorts of fiction.

To be honest, I'm somewhat surprised there were any untouched cities left for Michael Bay to destroy after already having made three previous Transformers films.

Betsy Steinberg, managing director of the Illinois Film Office, acknowledges the cold financial calculations that go into site selection and the increasingly cutthroat competition: "Without a competitive tax credit, we'd be seeing very little business."

...

Paramount Pictures' "Transformers 3," which likely will spend at least $20 million during its six-week shoot here this summer, could qualify for a tax credit of at least $6 million, which it can use or sell, effectively cutting its local filming budget.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-07-27/business/ct-bi...

By the president actually getting assassinated, i.e. it being successful?

That's a bit harder to find.