Former President Donald Trump recounted hearing gunshots as Secret Service agents thwarted an apparent assassination attempt against him at his golf club in Florida, praising the agency for doing an “excellent job” to keep him safe.
Trump spoke at length about the events on Sunday during a cryptocurrency event host on X, formerly Twitter.
“I was playing golf with some of my friends … very peaceful, very beautiful weather,” Trump recalled. “All of a sudden we heard shots being fired in the air, I guess probably four or five, and it sounded like bullets. But what do I know about that?”
“The Secret Service did an excellent job, and they have the man behind bars, and hopefully he’s going to be there a long time,” Trump said earlier in the conversation. “Dangerous person. Very, very dangerous person.”
He went on to quip that he would’ve “loved to sink that last putt” before he was whisked off the course.
The FBI said an agent with the Secret Service had fired upon a man hiding in the bushes along the perimeter of Trump’s club in West Palm Beach, Florida, about 500 yards up the course from where the former president was playing. The agent reported that he saw the muzzle of an AK-style weapon sticking through the greenery.
The suspect, identified as 58-year-old Ryan Routh, fled the scene without firing any shots. He was arrested later in a neighbouring county. He has since been charged with two counts in federal court: possession of a firearm as a felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Officials said on Monday that the man never had a line of sight on the former president and praised Secret Service protocol for keeping the president safe.
But questions remain as to how the man was able to get close enough to threaten Trump, even after the Republican presidential nominee survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, two months ago.
Trump said on Monday he had spoken to President Joe Biden on the phone, whom he described as “very nice.” Trump added that he thought he needed more people on his security detail.
But during the cryptocurrency event, the former president again laid blame on Democrats for the apparent attempt on his life.
“There’s a lot of rhetoric going on, a lot of people think of the Democrats when they talk about ‘threat to democracy’ and all of this,” Trump said, referencing calls on the left that Trump’s candidacy is a danger to the nation.
Earlier in the day, the former president told Fox News that the left’s rhetoric was “causing me to be shot at.” He did not mention his own constant attacks against Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, on the campaign trail.