Foiled Trump assassination attempt puts renewed focus on Secret Service

Two months after the Secret Service faced widespread blame for its failure to stop an assassination attempt targeting former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, the agency demonstrated alertness in forestalling what the FBI has characterized as a second assassination attempt in Florida Sunday afternoon. But the fact that someone with a semiautomatic rifle was able to get within 500 yards of Mr. Trump has raised urgent questions about the Secret Service’s ability to provide adequate protection under its current budget and approach.

While the Republican presidential nominee was out golfing at his club in West Palm Beach, Secret Service agents a few holes ahead of him noticed the muzzle of a rifle poking out from the tree line. They fired at the would-be gunman, who fled the scene in a vehicle. 

The suspect, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, left the rifle behind, along with a scope and a GoPro camera, according to The Associated Press. Local law enforcement were able to apprehend him within minutes of being alerted by the Secret Service, FBI, and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office – which were aided by a vigilant citizen who had taken photos of the suspect and his vehicle.

Mr. Routh did not have a clear line of sight to the former president, and did not fire any shots at the Secret Service, according to a Monday afternoon press conference with local and federal law enforcement. But he had been in the immediate vicinity for roughly 12 hours. The FBI said it is investigating the incident as an apparent assassination attempt.

The leaders of a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the July 13 assassination attempt against Mr. Trump, GOP Rep. Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania and Democratic Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, said they were monitoring the situation and had requested a briefing with the Secret Service. Mr. Trump was scheduled to be briefed by the acting director of the Secret Service on Monday.

Over the past decade, the Secret Service has been dogged by chronic understaffing, an intensifying threat environment, and a growing number of people to protect – including the multigenerational Trump and Biden families. Back-to-back brushes with assassination attempts at a volatile time in America underscore the urgency of implementing additional security measures while any systemic issues are investigated. Mr. Trump, despite his unusual position as both a former and potentially future president, does not receive the same protection as a sitting president, for whom such a golf course’s perimeter would have been lined with agents. 

“Two assassination attempts in 60 days on a former President & the Republican nominee is unacceptable,” wrote Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, a California progressive, on the social media platform X Sunday night. “The Secret Service must come to Congress tomorrow, tell us what resources are needed to expand the protective perimeter, & lets allocate it in a bipartisan vote the same day.”

Ryan Wesley Routh: interested in Ukraine

A resident of North Carolina and then, since 2018, Hawaii, Mr. Routh had expressed support for Mr. Trump on social media but later seemed to grow disaffected. In recent years, he expressed support for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, according to the AP. A man by the same name was convicted in 2002 for possession of a “weapon of mass destruction” – a fully automatic machine gun – the wire service reported, citing a 2002 news report regarding the weapon. 

Mr. Routh also grew keenly interested in the defense of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. He claimed to have traveled to Ukraine and said he was trying to recruit foreign fighters for the cause. He gave interviews last year to several U.S. media outlets about his efforts.

At the time of the Sunday incident, Mr. Routh was hidden in some shrubbery less than 500 yards away from the president – well within range to fire accurately with a scope. His apparent attempt to shoot, though not successful, underscored long-standing Secret Service concerns about the security challenges posed by golf courses.

Leaders condemn political violence

The barely averted violence could ratchet up tensions for both campaigns in the presidential contest, in which polls show Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris virtually tied with less than two months to go. 

Mr. Trump, who in last week’s presidential debate had blamed Democrats’ rhetoric for motivating the July shooting, reassured followers in a social media post that he was safe and well. He added, “I will NEVER SURRENDER!”

On Monday, Mr. Trump told Fox News Digital that the would-be gunman “believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” saying, “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at.”

His opponent, Ms. Harris, released a statement saying she was “deeply disturbed” by the incident and was thankful that Mr. Trump was safe. “We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence,” she said, commending the Secret Service and law enforcement for their vigilance and vowing that the agency would have every resource it needs to carry out its mission.

Congressional leaders also decried the incident and the rising threat of political violence. “We are thankful the President was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms,” Chair Kelly and Representative Crow said in a joint statement.

Investigations of the Secret Service underway

But headed toward an election that both sides have described in existential terms, each side says the other has primed its supporters for more potentially violent acts.

In that environment, the ability and preparedness of the Secret Service to do its job have come under fresh scrutiny. The first congressional hearing into the July shooting with the agency’s then-Director Kimberly Cheatle was so disastrous that she resigned the next day, despite having vowed repeatedly that she would not. 

As the Monitor reported at the time, a local law enforcement sniper took notice of Thomas Matthew Crooks an hour before he shot at the former president. Yet the Secret Service failed to stop him until he fired – wounding Mr. Trump, who happened to turn his head moments before, in the ear. Early reports blamed the low number of agents deployed (three), the lack of a joint briefing with agents and local law enforcement, siloed communication channels, and a decision not to use aerial surveillance, among other things.

The Secret Service has 8,000 personnel and a $3.1 billion annual budget, and many lawmakers have questions that go beyond why it failed July 13. A key concern is chronic understaffing. The number of employees assigned to protect senior figures has dropped about 10% over the past decade while the number of people it has to protect has increased, NBC News reported in July, citing congressional budget numbers. 

“The Secret Service operates under a paradox of zero-fail mission, but also that we have done more with less for decades,” said U.S. Secret Service acting Director Ron Rowe at a press conference Monday afternoon in Florida. He said that after the July shooting, he had ordered a paradigm shift, from a reactive model to a readiness model.

Indeed, the agency immediately stepped up its protection of Mr. Trump, whose team was earlier denied assets it had requested – though not on that particular day. Mr. Rowe said that the increased assets in place Sunday included countersniper, countersurveillance, and counterassault team elements, as well as counterdrone elements. In addition, the former president now speaks behind bulletproof glass at rallies. 

Congress is digging in to what happened at the July rally through a number of investigations, including by the House Oversight Committee, which held the hearing with Ms. Cheatle on July 25. The Senate Homeland Security Committee, which held its first – and so far only – hearing July 30, is also probing the matter, as is the House task force led by Representatives Kelly and Crow, who together with the rest of the committee members were appointed by their parties’ respective leaders.

None of those three bodies have produced a report of their findings. The office of GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a Homeland Security Committee member, compiled preliminary findings about the July assassination attempt, and issued a more thorough time line in late August. 

According to that time line, the first time law enforcement noticed the would-be assassin was an hour and 45 minutes before the shooting. 

The Secret Service will still have a lot to answer for as Congress continues its investigations into whether the July shooting revealed systemic problems, with this latest incident further underscoring the scope of the challenges.

“We cannot have failures,” said Mr. Rowe, the acting director, who was on Capitol Hill just last week. “And in order to do that we’re going to have some hard conversations with Congress, and we’re going to achieve that.” 

Editor’s note: This story has been updated on Sept. 16, 2024 – the date of initial publication – to reflect newly emerging details, and to correct a description of the scene where the Secret Service saw a threat to the former president.