Trump’s security at golf course was lighter because he’s not sitting prez: official
The Secret Service fought off another assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a Florida golf course on Sunday — as a local sheriff said Trump’s security was lighter since he’s only a candidate, not the commander in chief.
Agents opened fire on the shooter, identified as 58-year-old Ryan Routh, as he approached the Republican presidential candidate during a round of golf at Trump’s West Palm Beach course.
Trump was OK after the encounter, but West Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said that if he’d been in office, his security would have been much tighter.
“At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president,” Bradshaw said. “If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded.
“But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”
“I would imagine that the next time he comes to a golf course, there’ll probably be a little bit more people around the perimeter. But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done.”
The Secret Service unsurprisingly does not divulge many details on its website about how it protects national political figures.
But it does say that major presidential and vice presidential candidates — as identified by the Secretary of Homeland Security — are eligible to receive protection within one year of a general election.
The Secret Service conducts a threat assessment to determine whether a candidate is eligible — and part of that means considering “general or specific threats directed towards the candidate.”
But the website says little about how much protection the candidates receive, and how it compares to what the actual president gets.
Here's what we know about the assassination attempt on Trump in Florida:
- Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15, 2024.
- Trump sent out a statement to supporters soon after to report that he was “SAFE AND WELL.”
- The suspect — identified as Ryan Routh, 58, of Hawaii — was able to get within 300 to 500 yards of Trump at a chain link fence on the edge of the course, where he had an AK-47 and a GoPro camera set up, apparently to record the planned shooting.
- Routh has a history of supporting progressive causes online and has made 19 donations to Democratic candidates since 2019.
- A Secret Service agent spotted and opened fire on Routh as he put his gun through the fence. The suspect fled and was arrested on I-95 a short time later.
- According to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Trump’s security detail was lighter because he isn’t a sitting president — despite the previous attempt on his life in July.
The Secret Service increased Trump’s protective detail after the first attempt on his life during a July 13 rally in Butler, Pa. The agency also also offered protection to then-independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayokas said in July.
Following the deadly rally shooting, the Secret Service demanded Trump hold all future outdoor campaign events from behind bulletproof glass.
Tim Miller, a former Secret Service agent, told CBC News last year that former presidents’ level of security is “all based on whatever the Secret Service, through its intelligence and co-ordination capabilities, determines is appropriate for the protecting.”
The number of agents assigned to a former president also varies on the potential threats and how long they’ve been out of office, the outlet said.
For example, George W. Bush had about 75 agents protecting him and his wife, Laura, around the clock after he left office in 2008, according to Ronald Kessler, author of “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect.”
“Even a former president could be a goal of terrorist,” Kessler told CBC. “They can hold them hostage, for example.”
“If he’s going to go to a restaurant, they will go there first and check on the employees and check on their backgrounds to see if anybody has convictions for anything violent,” Kessler said, adding that Bush usually had four agents with him wherever he went.
Follow the latest on the foiled assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Florida
- Trump ‘safe and well’ after being targeted by would-be assassin with AK-47 assault rifle for second time in 2 months
- Shots fired near Trump live updates: Would-be shooter was 300-500 yards away, came with scope and GoPro — ‘Intent on filming’
- Who is alleged would-be Trump assassin Ryan Wesley Routh?
- Trump assures he’s ‘SAFE AND WELL’ after Secret Service fires at man armed with assault rifle at president’s golf resort
- Trump’s security at golf course was lighter because he’s not sitting prez: official
- Demands mount for Trump to get same protection as Biden — after yet another assassination plot
“Let’s say they’re going to a convention or something like that, they’ll definitely check the convention hall,” Kessler said. “They’ll have bomb sniffing dogs go around.”
Miller, the former agent, said Trump’s status as both a former president and current nominee complicates things.
“[That] would add some different dynamics because he’ll be going from site to site to site to site,” he told CBC.
“You look at George W. Bush, he went to the ranch, his dad went to Kennebunkport, and they lived relatively obscure lives from that point,” Miller said. “That’s not the case with former president Trump.”
Major candidates started getting a protective details after Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on the campaign trail in 1968, the site said. Prior to this, candidates and their families had no federal protection at all.
“Protection of a candidate/nominee is designed to maintain the integrity of the democratic process and continuity of Government,” the site read.
The former president was on the links at Trump International Golf Course West Palm Beach at about 2 p.m. on Sunday when an advance team spotted the gunman, sources told The Post.
Bradshaw stressed that it was difficult to identify the suspect earlier because of the “shrubbery.” But his deputies later took the unidentified man into custody after a traffic stop on I-95.
Although the Secret Service hasn’t found a motive for Sunday’s shooting, sources told The Post that the suspect made frequent pro-Ukraine and pro-Taiwan posts.
