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Former President Donald Trump is safe after what the FBI is investigating as an assassination attempt in South Florida, just two months after a gunman tried to kill the Republican presidential candidate at a rally in Pennsylvania.
The attack, which appears to have been an attempt on Trump’s life, comes just seven weeks before he faces Vice President Kamala Harris in a closely contested presidential election.
Trump, who was visiting his golf club near his Mar-a-Lago resort on Sunday, declared, “There is nothing to be afraid of! I am safe and well, no one was hurt. Thank God!”
The FBI said it was “investigating an attempted assassination attempt on former President Trump” in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Law enforcement officers arrested a man they said was hiding in bushes adjacent to the Trump International Golf Club on Sunday afternoon, where they found an AK-47-style rifle with a scope, two backpacks filled with ceramic tiles and a GoPro camera, Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw told reporters on Sunday.
A Secret Service agent spotted a rifle through a fence at the golf course and fired at the man, who was probably about 300 to 500 yards away, Bradshaw said, adding that Trump was “probably around 300 to 500 yards away.”
Witnesses saw the suspect jump out of the bushes, jump into a vehicle and drive off. Officers then stopped the vehicle and took the man into custody, Bradshaw said.
Jeffrey Veltri, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Miami field office, said the FBI has deployed bomb disposal technicians, investigative teams and other personnel.
Florida prosecutors are preparing warrants and motions for pretrial detention against the suspects, Palm Beach County State’s Attorney Dave Aronberg said, adding that state charges cannot preclude federal prosecutions.
If confirmed as an assassination attempt, the Florida incident would be the second time Trump has been targeted by a gunman during this election campaign.
Trump was shot and injured in the ear while speaking at a campaign rally in western Pennsylvania in July. After hiding behind the podium, the former president stood up, pumped his fist and yelled “fight, fight, fight” before being rushed to hospital.
At the time, Trump was leading in the polls and had outdistanced President Joe Biden in a debate in late June, stoking concerns about the age and fitness of the incumbent president. Days after the attack, Trump was formally nominated for the White House at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
But with Harris replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee, outperforming him in last week’s debate and enduring a tumultuous few days on the campaign trail, Trump faces a much tougher race.
The Secret Service said Sunday that it has “increased the volume of its assets” since the Pennsylvania incident, which has drawn intense criticism from the agency.
“The threat level is high,” a Secret Service official said.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday and said he thanked “God” for protecting the former president. “No leader in American history has withstood so many attacks and remained so strong and resilient. He is unstoppable,” Johnson said.
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for the “perpetrators” to be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Just received reports of gunfire near former President Trump and his property in Florida. I’m glad he’s safe. Violence has no place in America,” Harris wrote on X.
According to the national newspaper Financial Times Vote TrackerMs. Harris leads Mr. Trump by 2.1 percentage points. The former president has also come under fire from within her party for her debate performances as well as for launching an unfounded accusation against Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, that they were kidnapping and eating pets in the small Midwestern city.
The former president has also attracted attention by surrounding himself with far-right social media figures such as Laura Loomer, who last week launched a xenophobic attack on Harris over her racial origins.
On Sunday morning, President Trump slammed one of the world’s most famous and popular musicians, Taylor Swift, for endorsing Harris.
“I hate Taylor Swift!” he wrote on Truth Social, in a series of posts that also included slamming the New York Times as a “threat to democracy” and calling “rich people” who support Harris “idiots.”
