A gunman hid for nearly 12 hours in bushes before Donald Trump played an unscheduled game of golf at his oceanfront club in Florida – leaving locals stunned at what authorities say appears to be the second attempt to assassinate the former president in as many months.
It was hot and cloudy on Sunday afternoon when Trump and his good friend, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, arrived on the course of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
The former president was on the fifth fairway at 13:31 EDT (17:31 GMT), an area adjacent to busy roads near Palm Beach International Airport, when a member of his protection detail spotted a rifle poking out of foliage by the sixth hole.
Trump – who was evacuated unharmed – recounted on Monday night that he heard “probably four or five” shots ring out in the near-distance.
A quick-thinking Secret Service agent had opened fire in the direction of the suspect, who was about 300-500 yards away and did not have a clear line of sight to Trump, federal investigators said.
“Secret Service knew immediately it was bullets, and they grabbed me,” said Trump during a live-streamed event on X, formerly Twitter, from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
“We got into the carts and we moved along pretty, pretty good. I was with an agent, and the agent did a fantastic job.”
The gunman – who investigators say did not fire any shots – was concealed by the well-manicured shrubbery and tall palm trees that line the perimeter of the 27-hole course.
He had been lurking there on the public side of a fence since 01:59 local time on Sunday morning, according to mobile phone records, cited by federal officials.
The suspect was equipped with two digital cameras, a black plastic bag of food, an SKS-style semi-automatic rifle – a weapon with a range of nearly 440 yards – and a scope to magnify its lens.
The Republican presidential candidate’s last publicly scheduled campaign event had been on Saturday evening, on the other side of the country, in the state of Utah.
Residents say Trump spends almost every Sunday at the West Palm Beach golf club when he is not on the campaign trail.
But Secret Service director Ronald Rowe said on Monday that the former president was “not even really supposed to go there”, so agents had to put together a security plan at the last minute.
The foiled plot has left Trump’s neighbours in Palm Beach with pressing questions.
Did the suspect know the former president would be coming to play golf, or was it a guess?
How could he have gone undetected for so long, hiding in the bushes with a rifle?
The gunman escaped the scene in a black Nissan, ditching his backpack of goods and weapon.
A civilian woman was able to take a picture of his licence plate and pass it to investigators, Trump said on Monday night.
The gunman made it about 40 minutes before officers pulled over his vehicle on Interstate 95 and ordered him out.
Bodycam footage shows he seemed calm as officers shouted at him to step to the side before handcuffing him without incident.
On Monday, the suspect Ryan Routh, 58, appeared in a crowded Palm Beach court, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit and smiling as he chatted with his attorney.
He was charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. More charges could follow.
Routh, a Hawaii resident with a criminal history, had come across the FBI’s radar in 2019 for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The bureau tipped off law enforcement in Honolulu at the time.
While his motive for allegedly planning to target Trump has not been revealed, the suspect had said in the past on social media that he voted for the Republican in 2016 before souring on him.
On the perimeter of Trump’s golf course on Monday, bright orange cones, barricades, police cars and officers shielded all corners of the club.
The incident has shocked West Palm Beach and neighbouring towns.
