Armed suspect staked out Trump for 12 hours before Secret Service found him on golf course

The Secret Service didn’t discover a gunman hiding in the bushes of a West Palm Beach golf course Sunday until former President Donald Trump was 500 yards away from him, raising additional questions about whether the embattled agency is up to the task of safeguarding the GOP nominee.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. praised his agents Monday for thwarting what authorities said was the second assassination attempt against Trump in as many months. At an afternoon news conference with other law enforcement officials, he called it a “textbook” example of how his agents were able to identify and neutralize an armed threat to Trump while he was out golfing with a friend.

Rowe said the Secret Service has significantly beefed up its security measures for Trump since he was shot and wounded in the ear in a July 13 assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Those increased assets, which Rowe said were in place Sunday, included countersnipers, countersurveillance agents deployed around Trump International Golf Club, counterassault teams partnered with local Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies and unmanned aerial system elements, or drones.

As a result, Rowe said, an agent "encountered an individual attempting to secrete himself in the wood line” at the public periphery of the golf course and shot at the suspect, prompting him to flee before being captured by local police. Other agents then swarmed Trump and took him to safety.

“The protective methodologies of the Secret Service were effective yesterday,” Rowe said. “The former president's protective apparatus allowed for the early identification of the threat and led to a safe evacuation.”

Hours before Rowe's comments, a federal criminal complaint filed against suspected gunman Ryan Routh cited cellphone records that showed he spent 12 hours waiting in a wooded area adjacent to the golf course before aiming a semi-assault rifle in Trump’s direction shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday.

Rowe, who visited the golf course after flying down from Washington Monday, said the would-be shooter didn't have a clear line of sight to take a shot at Trump and never fired any rounds. He told reporters that was another indication that the agents did what they were supposed to do.

Routh, who made a court appearance Monday, is charged with unlawfully possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and with possessing a firearm that has an obliterated serial number, according to the federal criminal complaint.

'The people deserve the truth' about what happened Sunday: DeSantis

Rowe’s comments came as some lawmakers in Washington called for a probe into what happened on the golf course, even as the Secret Service is still facing criticism for allowing a young gunman to climb atop a nearby roof and fire off eight rounds at the July 13 rally. Thomas Matthew Crooks killed one attendee and injured two others before being killed by an agency countersniper.

“What we need from the Secret Service is more transparent truths about what happened, what works, what doesn't, what resources are missing,” Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania said on MSNBC. Dean is a member of the bipartisan task force investigating the July 13 incident and broader Secret Service issues.

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said he was launching a separate probe of the Sunday incident.

“The people deserve the truth about the would-be assassin and how he was able to get within 500 yards of the former president and current GOP nominee,” DeSantis said on X, formerly Twitter.

'The highest level' of security being provided: Rowe

Rowe on Monday said the agency has been providing the “highest level” of protection for Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, after President Joe Biden ordered the upgrade in response to the July 13 attack.

As Trump was moving through the fifth fairway, across the course and out of sight of the sixth green, an agent “who was visually sweeping the area of the sixth green saw the subject armed with what he perceived to be a rifle, and immediately discharged his firearm,” Rowe said.

“The subject, who did not have line of sight to the former president, fled the scene,” he said. “He did not fire or get off any shots at our agent.”

When asked why agents had not discovered the gunman sooner on Sunday, Rowe said that Trump’s golf outing was an “off the record movement,” or an event that “wasn't part of his schedule, so there was no posting up” of agents in advance of it.

“He wasn't supposed to have gone there in the first place,” Rowe said.

Given the circumstances, he said, the agents acted according to protocol and adopted a “layered” approach to covering Trump from the front and rear as he moved from hole to hole on one of his favorite golf courses.

“The swift action of that agent doing his job, pushing out ahead, sweeping while the president was behind him, several hundred yards and several holes away, out of sight from the gunman … was what alerted the detail” to the suspect, Rowe said.

Rowe said he has been constantly evaluating and upgrading protective security measures since Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned 10 days after the July assassination attempt. Rowe, her chief deputy, was tapped by the Biden administration to step in as acting director.

The outcome of Sunday’s incident, Rowe said, shows that the increase in protective detail agents and other tactical assets “that have been put in place as a result of what happened 60 days ago, those elements are working.”

“We will, of course, look at this and see what lessons (can be) learned from it,” Rowe said. “But as of right now, we are constantly evaluating that threat and if we need to ratchet up additionally, we will.”

More: What went wrong? How did Secret Service allow shooter to get so close to Trump?

Also Monday, Biden called on Congress to provide the Secret Service with more resources. “Thank God, the president is OK,” Biden told reporters as he left the White House Monday. “One thing I want to make clear: the Service needs more help. I think Congress should respond to their needs.”

Rowe said the protective agency has “done more with less for decades” and needs more resources to do its job in the current hyperpolitical threat environment.

“What I can tell you is that we have immediate needs right now, and we have great support, not only from President Biden” but also members of Congress about increasing funding for more agents and equipment, Rowe said.

But, Rowe added, “We cannot have failures. And in order to do that, we're going to have some hard conversations with Congress” about increased funding.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Armed Trump suspect hid for 12 hours before Secret Service found him