WASHINGTON — For the second time in more than two months, the Secret Service that protects the highest echelon of American leaders is under scrutiny — this time after a gunman hid in the shrubs along the fence of former President Donald Trump’s golf course for 12 hours.
The man didn’t get a shot off, but critics question how he could be just several hundred yards away from Trump — especially after the Republican presidential candidate’s security was beefed up after his near-death experience in July.
Biden administration officials praised the agency’s response, and former Secret Service agents say there are key differences between what unfolded Sunday and the security lapses at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman climbed onto an unsecured roof nearby and opened fire, clipping Trump’s ear and leaving a spectator dead.
Authorities say Ryan Wesley Routh camped with food and a rifle just outside the 27-hole Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the former president was playing Sunday. A Secret Service agent ahead of Trump spotted the rifle’s muzzle poking through the fence and opened fire. Routh fled and was later apprehended.
It’s long been known to law enforcement that places along the edge of the property leave Trump visible to those behind the fence, and some have questioned why it was not protected. But a sprawling golf course poses specific challenges, especially for a last-minute round, even with Trump’s bolstered security, former Secret Service agents say.
“A 400-acre golf course with miles of fence line is breachable. And the systems put in place to mitigate those threats worked. That’s not to say they couldn’t do more. But there are limits to what is possible,” said Paul Eckloff, a retired Secret Service agent who served on details protecting three presidents during his 23-year career.
The Secret Service is trying to protect a growing number of high-profile people, from presidents to visiting dignitaries, in a vitriolic political environment. President Joe Biden and some Republicans are pressing for more resources for the agency still facing several investigations and whose director resigned after the first attempt on Trump’s life.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said Sunday’s golf game was not on a formal schedule or advertised ahead of time. That means agents may find out about it the day before or even minutes before it happens.
Rowe emphasized that the gunman never had a line of sight on the former president and that security worked as it should. He said the edge of the property wasn’t monitored ahead of time because Trump “wasn’t supposed to have gone there in the first place.” Rowe described how agents spread out in front of and behind Trump, looking for threats.
Trump and his campaign have routinely praised the agents protecting him while expressing concerns about the agency more broadly, including that his detail isn’t large enough given the threat level.
But some have raised questions. During an interview Monday on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, Trump’s son Eric questioned how the gunman was able to stay in that location for so long without being detected.
“Those agents on the ground, they are remarkable,” he said. “But there is a breakdown.”
Rowe a day earlier said, “The agent’s hypervigilance and the detail’s swift action was textbook.”
It’s not possible for the Secret Service to shut down all traffic around the golf course, said Eckloff, who protected Trump while he was president, including at two of his golf courses in Florida. This course is in the middle of the city and taking such a step would have huge effects on residents.
Trump loves to golf and owns three courses in Florida. Trump International is closest to his Mar-a-Lago home and is a place he likes to go with friends. While Trump was president, news photographers were often able to capture images of him on the green by finding gaps in the shrubbery.
Security around Trump was dramatically beefed up after the July shooting. Trump now speaks from behind a bulletproof glass enclosure at outdoor rallies, and long guns are often spotted near locations where he’s staying.
The agency doesn’t release specific information about his protection but Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Trump’s detail now includes countersurveillance, a countersniper and counterassault resources. Before the Pennsylvania shooting, some of those assets were used depending on the event but now they’re permanently part of his detail, Guglielmi said.
During a POLITICO event Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised the response Sunday and said Trump’s security is now “quite approximate” to that of Biden. Many Republicans doubt that’s true.
Anthony Cangelosi, a former Secret Service agent who is now a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the close call shows there’s a need for more personnel to protect Trump and they could have been used to secure the course’s perimeter.
“That visible presence is what you want to deter any actors from saying, ‘Oh, I can do this today,’” Cangelosi said.
He commended the agent who spotted the muzzle but said there’s always a chance they could have missed it.
The Palm Beach County sheriff said the entire golf course would have been lined with law enforcement if Trump were president, but because he is not, “security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.”
Following the second apparent assassination attempt, Biden said the Secret Service needs more resources and called on Congress to help. Rowe said the agency had “immediate needs” and that he’s talking to Congress about funding.
Some lawmakers have said they’re willing to consider it. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says money alone won’t fix the problems but that he hears from Secret Service agents that “the work hours are awful. You’ll never convince me that more people won’t help.”
Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers need more details, particularly because the Secret Service has said a lack of resources was not the reason for the security failures that led up to the first attempt.
Even if new money is approved soon, it can take up to 18 months to bring on a new Secret Service staffer, retired supervisory Secret Service agent Bobby McDonald said. The agency may want to transfer more personnel from investigative work to its protective side, he said.
“There is no quick fix,” said McDonald, now a criminal justice lecturer at the University of New Haven. He noted that temporarily bringing in people from outside the agency to help can come with its own challenges because they don’t regularly do protective work.
Rowe stressed Monday that it wasn’t just a matter of more overtime for staff, who he said were “redlining.”
Former agents also question where staff would come from. With all of the political vitriol and the immediate blame, Eckloff said he’s worried about the effect of such animosity of those whose job it is to step in front of a bullet.
“They’re worthy of trust and confidence, but they need help. Constructive criticism is absolutely necessary,” he said. “But just demanding firing or say that they’re failures doesn’t make anyone safer or increase national security.”
