Washington CityThe acting director of the Secret Service told former President Donald Trump that significant additional security measures and planning would be needed if he wanted to continue playing golf safely, according to three people familiar with the conversation.
The agency’s acting director, Ronald L. Rowe Jr., made the recommendation in a meeting with Trump Monday afternoon at the former president’s office at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and home in Palm Beach, Florida.
The meeting came just 24 hours after the second assassination attempt on the former president in just over two months. And it also came at a time when, behind the scenes, tensions between the Trump campaign and the Secret Service were escalating. Trump asked Rowe if it was safe for him to continue golfing, one of the sources said. Rowe talked about the difficulty of protecting land near public roads and said some land was easier to protect than others.
It’s unclear what changes Trump will make to his golf schedule after the meeting, and some Republicans are frustrated that Trump may have to cut back on his weekly activities. They wonder why President Joe Biden can visit an open beach but Trump has to limit his golfing, especially considering other former presidents regularly play the sport.
But Trump and Biden don’t have the same level of security. One is a sitting president, the other a former president. Trump’s Secret Service protection level has been reduced since he left the White House. But since the first assassination attempt on him in July in Butler, Pennsylvania, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have expressed concerns about his protection, given the intensity of the current threat. Biden has asked the Secret Service to provide additional resources to keep Trump safe. Golf remains more than a hobby for Trump: It’s a key part of his identity, a way to socialize and an outlet as he navigates a presidential campaign and ongoing legal troubles. On Sunday, a suspected gunman, Ryan W. Routh, allegedly hid for 12 hours near the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, the FBI said. After a Secret Service agent spotted Routh sticking his gun out of the bushes surrounding the camp, the agent opened fire, sending Routh running toward his car, authorities said. Routh left behind a semi-automatic rifle, binoculars, two backpacks and a Go-Pro camera, indicating he intended to record the shooting, authorities said. Police stopped him on the side of Interstate 95 about 45 minutes after a witness who saw him fleeing snapped a photo of his license plate. In their meeting Monday, Rowe told Trump that it was difficult to protect his sprawling golf course because it had so much open space, said one of the people briefed on the meeting. The course is located close to a public road and the fact that photographers, using long-range lenses, were able to capture Trump on the greens and fairways suggests that a skilled shooter could have a clear view of Trump. The former president himself raised some of these concerns in the meeting with Rowe, said one of the people familiar with the meeting. Rowe told Trump that the Secret Service considered the Joint Base Andrews golf course easier to protect than some of his courses because it was a military course, two of the people said. Barack Obama played there frequently during his presidency. Given Trump’s campaign schedule, which is expected to get increasingly busy as November approaches, it’s unclear how much golf he has been able to play in the last 49 days, an adviser said. Campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez declined to comment at a private news conference Monday. She referred to Trump’s social media posts Sunday praising the Secret Service and law enforcement. “What an interesting day!” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, adding in all capital letters: “Absolutely incredible job done.” In a private conversation shortly after the shooter interrupted his game, Trump told Sen. Lindsey Graham that his Secret Service team was “amazing,” Graham, R-S.C., recalled. But while Trump has repeatedly praised the agents for their personal work since the first assassination attempt in July, his team has complained that the agency has not given the former president the resources he needs on his campaign. A Secret Service spokeswoman said Rowe declined to comment on private conversations involving someone the agency protects.
