WASHINGTON — For the second time in more than two months, the Secret Service, which protects the highest echelons of American leadership, is coming under scrutiny – this time after a shooter hid in the bushes 12 hours along the fence of former President Donald Trump’s golf course.
The man did not fire a shot, but critics are questioning how he could have been just a few hundred feet away from Trump — especially after security was beefed up around the Republican presidential candidate following his attack. near death experience in july.
Biden administration officials praised the agency’s response, and former Secret Service agents say there are important differences between what happened Sunday and the security breaches at an open air gathering in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman climbed onto an unsecured roof nearby and opened fire, hitting Trump in the ear and leaving a bystander dead.
Authorities say Ryan Wesley Routh camped with food and a gun just outside the 27-hole Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the former president played on Sunday. A Secret Service agent for Trump saw the barrel of the gun through the fence and open fire. Routh fled and was later arrested.
Law enforcement has long known that spaces along the perimeter of the property make Trump visible to those behind the fence, and some have questioned why it wasn’t protected. But a sprawling golf course presents its own challenges, especially for a last-minute round, even with Trump’s beefed up securitysay former Secret Service agents.
“A 1,000-acre golf course with miles of fencing is vulnerable. And the systems that were put in place to mitigate those threats worked. That’s not to say they couldn’t do more. But there are limits to what can be done,” said Paul Eckloff, a retired Secret Service agent who protected three presidents during his 23-year career.
The secret service is trying to growing number of prominent peoplefrom presidents to visiting dignitaries, in a vitriolic political climate. President Joe Biden and some Republicans are pushing for more resources for the agency, which is still facing multiple investigations and whose director has resigned after the first attempted assassination of Trump.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said Sunday’s golf match was not on a formal schedule or announced in advance. That means agents could find out about it a day or even minutes beforehand.
Rowe stressed that the shooter never had a line of sight of the former president and that security worked as it should. He said the The edge of the plot was not monitored in advance because Trump “shouldn’t have gone there in the first place.” Rowe described how officers spread out in front of and behind Trump, looking for threats.
Trump and his campaign have routinely praised the officers who protected him He expressed concerns about the agency in general, including that its team is not large enough given the threat level.
But some have raised questions. During an interview Monday on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Trump’s son Eric questioned how the shooter was able to remain at the location for so long without being detected.
“Those officers on the ground, they are remarkable,” he said. “But there is a glitch.”
Rowe said a day earlier: “The officer’s hypervigilance and the police’s quick actions were textbook examples.”
It’s not possible for the Secret Service to shut down all traffic around the golf course, said Eckloff, who protected Trump during his presidency, including at two of his Florida courses. The course is in the middle of the city, and such a move would have huge implications for residents.
Trump enjoys golf and owns three courses in Florida. Trump International is the closest to his home at Mar-a-Lago and is a place he likes to hang out with friends. When Trump was president, news photographers were often able to get photos of him on the green by finding holes in the brush.
Security around Trump was drastically tightened after the shooting in julyTrump now speaks at open-air rallies behind a bulletproof glass fence, and long guns are often spotted near the places where he stays.
The agency is not releasing specific information about his protection, but Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Trump’s security now includes countersurveillance, a countersniper and counterstrike capabilities. the shooting in pennsylvaniaSome of those resources were used depending on the event, but now they are a permanent part of his team, Guglielmi said.
At a POLITICO event on Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised Sunday’s response, saying Trump’s security is now “pretty much on par” with Biden’s. Many Republicans doubt that’s true.
Anthony Cangelosi, a former Secret Service agent who now teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the critical moment highlights the need for more personnel to protect Trump and that those individuals may have been deployed to secure the area surrounding the trail.
“That visible presence is what you want to prevent actors from saying, ‘Oh, I can do this today,’” Cangelosi said.
He praised the officer who spotted the barrel, but said there was always a chance they missed it.
The Palm Beach County sheriff said the entire golf course would be filled with law enforcement if Trump were president, but because he is not, “security is limited to areas the Secret Service deems possible.”
After the second apparent assassination attempt, Biden said the Secret Service needs more resources and called on Congress to help. Rowe said the agency had “immediate needs” and that he was talking to Congress about funding.
Some lawmakers have said they’re willing to consider it. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says money alone won’t solve the problems, but he’s heard from Secret Service agents that “the hours are horrible. You’re never going to convince me that more people won’t help.”
Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said lawmakers need more details, especially since the Secret Service has said a lack of resources was not the reason for the security lapses that led to the first attempt.
Even if new money is approved soon, it could take up to 18 months to hire a new Secret Service employee, said retired Secret Service supervisory agent Bobby McDonald. The agency may want to shift more personnel from investigative work to the protective side, he said.
“There’s no quick fix,” said McDonald, now a criminal justice professor at the University of New Haven. He noted that hiring people from outside the agency on a temporary basis to help can come with its own challenges, since they don’t do regular protective work.
Rowe stressed Monday that it was not just about more overtime for staff, which he said was “redlining.”
Former officers also wonder where the staff would come from. With all the political venom and direct blame, Eckloff said he worries about the effect of such hostility from those whose job it is to step in front of a bullet.
“They are worthy of trust and assurance, but they need help. Constructive criticism is absolutely necessary,” he said. “But simply demanding resignations or saying they are failing does not make anyone safer or enhance national security.”
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Associated Press reporters Jill Colvin in New York and Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed.
