Targeted while golfing
Trump: “Suddenly heard shots in the air”
After former US President Donald Trump once again narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, he has spoken out about it for the first time. He called for more people in his security team, but appeared hardened: he would have preferred to finish the golf match, said the 78-year-old.
"Suddenly we heard shots in the air. I guess there were probably four or five," Trump said at an online event on the short messaging service X on Monday. "The Secret Service immediately knew it was bullets, and they grabbed me. (...) We got in the golf carts and drove away pretty, pretty fast."
The Secret Sercive had done a "fantastic job". "We need more people on my security team," he demanded. In his own words, Trump would have preferred to finish the golf match against his opponents. "I would have loved to have sunk the last putt, but we decided we had to get out of here," the 78-year-old reportedly said during a conversation on the X Spaces platform.
Gun barrel sticking out of bushes on golf course
Trump was playing golf with friends at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when a Secret Service bodyguard saw a gun barrel sticking out of the fence around the golf course, which was planted with bushes. According to police reports, officers then quickly opened fire. The suspect, who was only a few hundred meters away from Trump, did not fire a shot. He fled in a car and was arrested a short time later on a nearby highway.
Witness photographed suspect's car
At first everything was very peaceful, Trump described his perception. "Suddenly we heard shots being fired into the air." The Secret Service knew immediately that they were bullets. "There was no question that we were leaving the golf course." A witness had photographed the suspect's car, which also made it possible to locate the car. "The civilian did a phenomenal job," said Trump, who also praised the Secret Service - they had put the man behind bars. "Hopefully he'll be there for a long time. A dangerous person, a very, very dangerous person."
Trump frequently plays golf at one of his clubs on weekends. On Sunday afternoon, the former US president, who wants to run for the Republican White House for the second time in November, played with real estate investor and party donor Steve Witkoff.
According to the US presidential office, US President Joe Biden spoke to Trump on the phone and expressed his relief at his safety. In a statement, Trump described the conversation as a "very nice call".
New incident raises concerns
The incident raises the question of how an armed man could get so close to the former president just two months after Trump was hit in the ear in an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The incident led to criticism of the Secret Service, whose chief subsequently resigned. Interim chief Ronald Rowe said numerous measures taken since then had helped officials in Florida respond quickly.
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