Secret Service’s elevated presence thwarted potential second Trump assassination attempt

Secret Service’s elevated presence thwarted potential second Trump assassination attempt Show Caption Hide Caption Secret Service faces security challenges protecting Trump Trump had elevated security Sunday when an assassination attempt was thwarted. WASHINGTON – The Secret Service had an elevated presence around former President Donald Trump when he was golfing on Sunday and thwarted an alleged assassination attempt after an agent in front of him spotted a rifle through the shrubbery. But the recent incident at one of Trump’s golf clubs in Florida underscores the challenges in protecting a presidential candidate who likes to keep a high public profile – including hitting the links and holding outdoor rallies, those experts told USA TODAY. “Generally, even for a sitting president, they will operate in the way that they did here,” said A.T. Smith, the deputy director of the Secret Service from 2012 to 2015. That means having agents do the best they can to accommodate other golfers, Smith said, while discreetly scouring the terrain for potential threats as Trump and his party continued playing. You would do basically what they did today, which is they probably go in and sweep the course to a certain degree ahead of time, and then you create this sort of moving bubble” around the protectee, in this case Trump, Smith told USA TODAY. According to Secret Service protocol, the bubble would then move along with Trump, covering a range of three to five holes ahead of and behind him, using high-tech tools for any sign of a potential assailant, Smith said. “They move obviously in advance of him, and then with him as he goes along.” Doing ‘the same thing we’ve been doing all along’ Like Smith, former Secret Service Director John Magaw cautioned that there’s much more to learn about the incident in the coming days, including whether agents used aerial surveillance drones to monitor the course. But Magaw too said it looked like the Secret Service was following protocol, especially for someone like Trump who is a presidential candidate not entitled to the full complement of protection he was given when he was president. Questions since the July 13 attempted assassination of Trump Questions about the Secret Service’s ability to safeguard Trump and other protectees have intensified since the GOP nominee was shot by a would-be assassin at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pa. Trump was wounded in the right ear and one rallygoer was killed and two others injured in that assassination attempt. Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigned, and the agency pledged to beef up security so that none of its several dozen protectees are that vulnerable again. On Sunday, a source familiar with the unfolding investigation said it could not be determined immediately if the suspect was able to get a shot off before being fired at by Secret Service agents – and that that would be looked at as part of the ongoing investigation. The source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational Secret Service details, said the agency was indeed providing an elevated security presence on Sunday as part of its broader effort to bolster protection of Trump in the aftermath of the first assassination attempt. In this case, a U.S. Secret Service agent who was in front of Trump as he golfed saw what appeared to be the barrel of a rifle, officials said at an afternoon news conference. ‘Pretty much out of sight’ due to golf course shrubbery The suspect, Ryan Routh, was taken into custody soon after, David Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County, said. Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw praised the agency for its response Sunday, saying “the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done. But Bradshaw also said the agency had less protection at the golf course for Trump because he was a former president and not a current one, and that its agents were hampered by the fact that “the golf course is surrounded by shrubbery.” “So when somebody gets into the shrubbery, they’re pretty much out of sight, and at this level that he is at right now, he’s not undefined Bradshaw said at the news conference. “If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded.” “But because he’s not, the security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible,” Bradshaw said. “So I would imagine that the next time he comes to the golf course, there’ll probably be a little bit more people around the perimeter.” Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, said on X that the incident raised troubling questions about the Secret Service’s ability to protect Trump. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/16/secret-service-trump-attack/75241121007/