The Secret Service is under scrutiny again after another shooter has targeted Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second time in more than two months, the Secret Service that protects America’s top leadership is under scrutiny — this time after a gunman hid in bushes along the fence of former President Donald Trump’s golf course. 12 hours.

The man was not shot, but critics question how he could have been just a few hundred meters away from Trump — especially after the Republican presidential nominee’s security was tightened following 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 Sunday’s events and the outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman climbed onto a nearby unprotected roof and opened fire, cutting Trump off. replace and leave the viewer 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 played Sunday. A Secret Service agent ahead of Trump spotted the muzzle of a rifle sticking through the fence and opened fire. Routh fled and was later captured.

Law enforcement officials have long known that sites on the property’s edge leave Trump visible from behind the fence, and some have questioned why it wasn’t secured. But the sprawling golf course poses special challenges, especially for a last-minute round, even with Trump’s beefed-up security, former Secret Service agents say.

“A 400-acre golf course with miles of fence has to be breached. And the systems put in place to mitigate those threats are working. It doesn’t mean they can’t do more. But there are limits to what can be done,” said Paul Eckloff, a retired Secret Service agent who served on detail protecting three presidents 23 during his -year career.

The Secret Service tries to protect a growing number of high-profile people, from presidents to visiting dignitaries, in a heated political environment. President Joe Biden and some Republicans are calling for more resources for the agency, which is still facing multiple investigations and whose head resigned after Trump’s first assassination attempt.

Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. said Sunday’s golf match was not formally scheduled or advertised in advance. This means agents can find out about it days before or even minutes before it happens.

Rowe emphasized that the shooter never had line of sight with the former president and that security was working as it should. He said the edge of the property was not pre-screened because Trump “wasn’t supposed to go there in the first place.” Rowe described how agents fanned out in front of and behind Trump to look for threats.

Trump and his campaign have routinely praised the agents who protect him and expressed concerns about the agency more broadly, including that his detail is not large enough for the threat level.

But some have raised questions. In 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 spotted.

“Those agents out there, they’re remarkable,” he said. “But there’s a bug.”

Rowe said a day earlier: “The agent’s hypervigilance and quick action on detail were textbook.”

It’s not possible for the Secret Service to shut down all traffic around a 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 such a step would have a big impact on the residents.

Trump loves golf and owns three courses in Florida. Trump International is the closest to his Mar-a-Lago home and is where he likes to go with friends. When Trump was president, news photographers were often able to get pictures of him on the green by looking for gaps in the brush.

Security around Trump was dramatically stepped up after the July shooting. Trump now speaks from behind a bulletproof glass case at outdoor events, and long guns are often spotted near his lodgings.

The agency does not release specifics about his protection, but Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said Trump’s credentials now include counter-surveillance, counter-sniper and counter-attack assets. Before the Pennsylvania shooting, some of those funds were used depending on the incident, but now they are permanently part of his detail, Guglielmi said.

During a POLITICO event on Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas praised the response on Sunday, saying Trump’s security is now “pretty close” to Biden’s. Many Republicans doubt that is true.

Anthony Cangelosi, a former Secret Service agent who now teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the close call shows that more personnel are needed to protect Trump and could have been used to secure the perimeter of the course.

“That visible presence is what you want to keep Actors from saying, ‘Oh, I can do this today,'” Cangelosi said.

He thanked the agent for spotting 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 since he isn’t, “security is limited to areas deemed possible by the Secret Service.”

After another apparent assassination attempt, Biden said the Secret Service needs more resources and asked Congress to help. Rowe said the agency had “immediate needs” and was talking to Congress about funding.

Some lawmakers have said they are willing to consider it. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says money alone won’t solve problems, but he hears from Secret Service agents that “the hours are terrible. You’ll never convince me that more people don’t help.”

Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers need more information, especially since the Secret Service has said a lack of resources was not the cause of the security breaches that led to the first attempt.

Even if the new money is approved soon, it could take up to 18 months to hire a new Secret Service agent, retired Secret Service agent Bobby McDonald said. The agency may want to shift more personnel from investigative work to its protection side, he said.

“There’s no quick fix,” said McDonald, now a professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven. He pointed out that temporarily bringing in people from outside the agency to help can bring its own challenges because they don’t regularly do protection work.

Rowe stressed on Monday that it wasn’t just about adding staff overtime to what he said was a “realignment.”

Former agents also ask where the staff will come from. For all the political vitriol and immediate blame, Eckloff said he worries about the impact of such hostility on those tasked with stepping in front of a bullet.

“They are trustworthy, but they need help. Constructive criticism is absolutely necessary, he said. “But just calling for a shooting or saying it’s a failure isn’t going to make anyone safer or increase national security.”

___

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed.