Former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated on September 15 while golfing in West Palm Beach. The former president’s trip to Trump International Golf Club was not planned, but would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh was waiting on the course, hiding in a shrubbery for 12 hours with a rifle and GoPro. A Secret Service agent scouring the perimeter saw the barrel through the foliage and opened fire—Routh fled but was later arrested by local police.
Yet, The New York Times is reporting that the Secret Service warned Trump about the additional security measures that would need to be undertaken if he were to play golf safely (via NYT):
The acting director of the Secret Service told former President Donald J. Trump that significant additional security arrangements and planning would be needed if he wanted to continue safely playing golf, according to three people with knowledge of their conversation.
The agency’s acting director, Ronald L. Rowe Jr., made the recommendation on Monday afternoon at a meeting with Mr. Trump in his office at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and home in Palm Beach, Fla.
The meeting came just 24 hours after a second apparent assassination attempt on Mr. Trump within just two months. Behind the scenes, tensions between the Trump campaign and the Secret Service had already been escalating.
Mr. Trump asked Mr. Rowe whether it was safe for him to keep playing golf, one of the people said. Mr. Rowe discussed the difficulties of securing sprawling golf courses near public roads and said some of Mr. Trump’s courses were easier to protect than others, one of the people said.
Okay, who are these sources? Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe was caught in another lie again because he took a victory lap during this week’s presser, claiming the security plan they set for that golf outing worked. That’s a far cry from the ‘we warned him not to go’ narrative we have cooking up here, another attempt from the establishment press to blame the former president for this recent assassination attempt instead of Mr. Routh, who was 350-500 yards away from the former president.
Is someone lying here? Susan Crabtree has more:
‼️ Secret Service Told Trump No Golfing Until They Can Bolster Security
— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) September 18, 2024
👉👉That's definitely not what acting USSS Sec. Ronald Rowe told reporters at his briefing AFTER the meeting.
He emphasized all the Secret Service assets he'd been given, countersnipers, CAT,…
That's definitely not what acting USSS Sec. Ronald Rowe told reporters at his briefing AFTER the meeting.
He [Routh] emphasized all the Secret Service assets he'd been given, countersnipers, CAT, counter-surveillance units, protective intelligence, and drone teams, (although I learned yesterday the USSS did not have a drone in the sky on Sunday, but had counter-drone assets in place.)
And they also emphasized all the extra assets to me.
This is what they said in response to a question about how many assets Trump has when golfing versus Biden has had in the past as a sitting president:
Anthony Guglielmi to me Monday morning:
"Former President Trump’s protective posture has been elevated to the highest levels for the Secret Service. Without going into specific numbers.
Acting Director Ronald Rowe summarized some of the specialty enhancements yesterday at the press conference, including that the former president, now receives counter assault, counter, surveillance, counter, sniper, protective intelligence, and drone teams that supplement his detail.
Once again, the agency can’t get a story straight.
