FBI investigating ‘what appears to be an assassination attempt’ on Trump

The FBI is investigating what it says is a new “assassination attempt” against former US President Donald Trump, the second in two months. The incident occurred at Donald Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when Secret Service agents spotted the barrel of an AK-47 rifle hidden in the bushes at the fence. One of the agents opened fire and a man fled. The candidate is safe. A suspect has been arrested. Police have located the firearm and two backpacks next to the fence.

The incident introduces a new factor in the troubled US election campaign, just fifty days before a presidential election that promises a very close result between Trump and his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris. Polls show a technical tie between the two.

Trump himself confirmed that he is “safe and sound” in a text message sent to his supporters. “From Trump: I AM SAFE AND HAPPY! No one was hurt. Thank God. I am grateful to have your support,” the message reads. “There are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us,” it adds, “I will not stop fighting for you. I will never give up! I will always love you for standing with me. Through our UNITY We Will Make America Great Again!”

In a statement, his campaign had warned of the incident and had limited itself to saying that the Republican candidate was “safe.” “President Trump is safe after shots were fired in his vicinity,” said the candidate’s spokesman, Steven Cheung. “There are no further details at this time.”

Sheriff Rick Bradshaw told a news conference that the first call came in at around 1:30 p.m. local time (7:30 p.m. CET), reporting that a shooting had occurred. The area was immediately cordoned off.

“Fortunately, an eyewitness saw a person fleeing the scene in a black Nissan. He took a photograph of the vehicle, which showed the license plate. That was very helpful,” Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a joint press conference with FBI officials.

This allowed the agents to quickly locate the suspect vehicle, intercept it and arrest its occupant. Later, in the bushes, they found the rifle, which had been fitted with a scope, a Go-Pro camera and two backpacks. The scope, the FBI said, would have allowed the attacker to easily shoot Trump, who was about 100 metres away.

When the incident occurred, Trump was playing golf and moving between two holes. One of the agents from his Secret Service escort, who had moved forward to the second hole as part of the protection measures for the former president, saw the barrel of the rifle sticking out from the bushes surrounding the course and opened fire. This caused the suspect to flee.

Police know the identity of the suspect, a man, but have not yet revealed it. Among the details they have given, they have specified that when he was arrested, the suspect was unarmed and appeared calm. The shots were fired from outside the fence that encloses the golf course, two sources have explained to the Reuters agency.

Television footage showed the area cordoned off and a vehicle stopped. Traffic on the road was cut off.

A spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the shooting had occurred “on the grounds” of Trump International Golf in West Palm Beach while the Republican candidate was there. She added that a “person of interest” had been arrested, although “his intentions are unknown at this time.”

In a message on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, the candidate’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said that an AK-47 rifle had been found in some bushes and a suspect had been arrested.

The White House has been alerted to the incident. “The president [Joe Biden] and the vice president [Kamala Harris] “have been informed of this incident at Trump International Golf Course, where former President Trump was playing golf. They are relieved to know that he is safe. His team will keep them informed as necessary,” the presidential office said in a statement.

In a message on X, the vice president added that “violence has no place in the United States.” Harris had participated in a televised debate with her rival in Philadelphia on Tuesday, watched by almost 68 million people. The next day, the two met again — for the second time in their lives — at a ceremony to honor the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York.

The former US president was shot in the ear by a lone gunman while he was holding a rally in the town of Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, in an attack that left one election-goer dead. Secret Service agents shot dead the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, whose motivation has not yet been definitively established: the young man had sought information about both Trump and President Biden, then the Democratic presidential candidate. It was the first attack on a sitting president or an electoral candidate in more than four decades.

The incident was made possible by serious flaws in the security arrangements put in place by the Secret Service. Its head, Kimberly Cheatle, was forced to resign amid strong pressure from both parties in Congress following the incident.

Sunday’s incident comes as neither candidate has managed to break the technical tie between them, although polls give the Democrat a slight advantage. Both candidates have an intense week of rallies planned. Harris will visit the swing states of the so-called “blue wall”: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.