The Secret Service has told Donald Trump that agents cannot keep him safe on his golf courses without significantly enhancing his security arrangements, according to a new report.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe informed the former president that a major increase in security resources and coordination is needed if he wants to keep playing golf at some of his courses, according to the New York Times.
The Trump campaign reportedly voiced its frustrations that Trump could be denied his favorite leasure activity over security concerns — even as Joe Biden has wiled away his presidency lounging on public Delaware beaches.
The recommendation came during a meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida Monday — a day after alleged gunman Ryan Routh was caught hiding in the bushes of his West Palm Beach golf club with an SKS assault rifle, just hundreds of yards from the former president as he golfed.
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.
But Trump’s team has reportedly already been requesting additional support from the Secret Service in the weeks since he narrowly avoided another assassin’s bullet in July – and complaining that he hasn’t been getting it, sources told the Times.
And in the two years prior to that July attempt Trump’s team repeatedly implored the Secret Service to provide him with additional security, only to be rebuffed by the agency’s leaders time and again over a supposed lack of resources.
Despite Trump outwardly showing his thanks for the Secret Service’s actions Sunday, Monday’s meeting with director Rowe was reportedly a tense showdown.
The former president inquired whether it was safe to continue golfing at all – pointing out how photographers outside his golf club grounds regularly shoot him while he plays — a vulnerability first reported by The Post.
Rowe noted that securing courses built so close to public roads – as Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach is — was difficult, and suggested the military course at Joint Base Andrews would be a more secure option for him.
Trump owns numerous golf courses across the world, and regularly played at them throughout his presidency.
After the Secret Service recommendation members of Trump’s team reportedly expressed frustration that he might have to sacrifice something so important to his wellbeing, even as Biden has been able to safely lounge about public beaches in Delaware throughout his term.
Sitting presidents generally have substantially stronger security than former presidents, but the two attempts on Trump’s life in as many months along with his name on the Republican presidential ballot have raised serious questions about what resources he should be granted.
The question has made it all the way to Biden.
He and Trump spoke by phone Monday to discuss the most recent assassination attempt, and Biden even agreed to give Trump whatever security was needed to keep him safe, the Times reported.
Trump reportedly told Biden that his Secret Service detail has voiced the need for more personnel, and the president told him congressional funding would be required to make it happen.
Secret Service agents narrowly foiled Routh’s plot Sunday after they spotted his rifle barrel sticking out of the bushes just a hold ahead of where Trump was playing.
Agents opened fire on him but he managed to escape, only to be caught later on a Florida highway.
Rowe revealed Monday that a perimeter search of the golf club was not conducted before Trump began his round.
