September 16, 2024
As with the previous attempt on Trump, Routh was able to exploit gaps in the Secret Service protection detail to get approximately 400 feet away from the former president and the Secret Service again faces scrutiny
For the second time in as many months, the FBI is investigating an assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump, this time at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
According to the New York Times, on Sept. 15, Secret Service agents fired at a man who was armed with a rifle and hiding in bushes around the golf club. The man fled the scene and was later apprehended and taken into custody.
Law enforcement eventually identified the suspect as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, a former construction worker and Trump voter who also tried to recruit former Afghan soldiers who had defected from the Taliban to fight for Ukraine in their war against Russia.
As with the previous attempt on Trump, Routh allegedly exploited gaps in the Secret Service protection detail to get approximately 400 feet away from the former president.
“One thing I want to make clear is: The Service needs more help,” President Joe Biden told reporters. “And I think Congress should respond to their need. Thank God the president is OK.”
The assassination attempt also did not escape Elon Musk and other conservative voices on Twitter/X, who used the nebulous “they” to refer to a potential Trump assassin.
Musk, in particular, mused why there hasn’t yet been an attempt on either President Joe Biden or Trump’s opponent in the presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris.
After a user posed a question, “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Musk, who is a Trump supporter, responded, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
In all seriousness, as a former federal prosecutor, I can tell you that a statement like Elon Musk's below DOES require an immediate visit by the U.S. Secret Service. That is the protocol in every similar situation. https://t.co/OuZ4lYoNlu
After the post received outrage, Musk deleted his comments and attempted to clarify on the platform on Sept 16 that he was making a joke through multiple posts.
Elon now says his post suggesting more people should be trying to assassinate Biden and Harris was a "joke" pic.twitter.com/ysOCTRhHZi
“Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X,” Musk said. “Turns out that jokes are WAY less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is plain text,” Musk wrote in a follow-up post.
This is Ryan Routh, the man who allegedly tried to assassinate Trump today.
He voted for Trump in 2016.
He apparently supported a Haley/Vivek ticket in 2024.
So, when MAGA world says "they keep trying to assassinate Trump," what they apparently mean is "Republicans keep trying… pic.twitter.com/yo0lhqT2aM
Rick Bradshaw, the sheriff of Palm Beach County, said that the security detail of a former president is smaller than a sitting president, which likely contributed to agents’ inability to effectively secure the perimeter, even after the detail was enhanced following the last assassination attempt.
“At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president—if he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded,” Bradshaw told the New York Times.
Though Bradshaw praised the service’s fast response, he thought security would be even further enhanced on Trump’s next visit to a golf course.
“The facts about a second incident certainly warrant very close attention and scrutiny,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who investigated the Secret Service’s failure in the previous Trump assassination attempt, told the Times. “Certainly, a second serious incident, apparently involving an assault weapon, is deeply alarming and appalling.”
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