How could the Secret Service let another shooter get so close to Donald Trump, Republicans ask

Furious Republicans are demanding to know how a second gunman got close enough to Donald Trump to threaten his life, as the most volatile race for the White House in more than 50 years took another dramatic turn.

Alleged would-be assassin Ryan Routh, left, and Donald Trump.

Furious Republicans are demanding to know how the US Secret Service could have let a second gunman in just nine weeks get close enough to Donald Trump to threaten his life, as the most volatile race for the White House in more than 50 years took another dramatic turn.

Ryan Wesley Routh, a 58-year-old registered Democrat and Ukrainian War volunteer, was detained by authorities on Sunday (Monday AEST) after allegedly seeking to shoot the former president while he was playing golf with top Republican donor Steve Witkoff, a New York real-estate investor, at his private golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Secret Service agents opened fire at Mr Routh, a self-employed builder from Hawaii with a criminal record, when they spotted him hiding in bushes and holding an AK-47 rifle.

He was near the sixth hole at Trump International Golf Course, about 300m from the former president, and it was not clear if he was able to fire back.

Mr Trump was led to the safety of his Mar-a-Lago residence.

It was also not clear how the second attempt on Mr Trump’s life would shake up a campaign already struck by the first assassination attempt on the former president, the Democrats’ shock coup against a struggling President Joe Biden, and Mr Biden’s Democratic deputy Kamala Harris’s meteoric rise to the top of the election polls.

After a weekend dominated by Mr Trump’s bizarre attack on the world’s most famous singer, Taylor Swift, and his running mate JD Vance’s admission that he “created” the stories about Haitians eating dogs and cats in a small Ohio town, Mr Trump said the attempted assassination would not deter his campaign to return to the Oval Office.

“My resolve is only stronger after another attempt on my life! I will never slow down. I will never give up,” the former president said in a fundraising statement to ­supporters in the hours after the foiled attack.

Hours after the event. Mr Trump added on social media: “I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes – It was certainly an interesting day!” and thanked the Secret Service “for the incredible job done today at Trump International in keeping me, as the 45th President of the United States, and the Republican Nominee in the upcoming Presidential Election, SAFE”.

The FBI described “what appears to be an attempted assassination” after authorities caught the suspect, who fled the scene, in a car leaving a rifle, GoPro camera, and two backpacks at the scene.

“With a rifle and a scope like that, that’s not a long distance,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said after the incident.

After agents confronted him, Mr Routh allegedly ran away and drove off in a black Nissan but a witness took down his number plates. He was arrested by the FBI on a nearby highway just minutes after he fled.

When asked why the GOP nominee did not have better protection, Mr Bradshaw suggested the Secret Service did not have the resources they would have had if Mr Trump was still president. “At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded. But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas the Secret Service deems possible,” Mr Bradshaw said.

“I would imagine that the next time he comes to a golf course, there’ll probably be a little bit more people around the perimeter. But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done.”

Mr Routh was charged with weapons offences more than 20 years ago when he was involved in a three-hour stand-off with North Carolina police during which he brandished a machine gun. By 2018 he had moved to Hawaii, where he ran a construction company.

Vocal on social media, Mr Routh seemed ideologically scattered. Despite being a donor to Democratic fundraisers, he claimed to have voted for Mr Trump in 2016 and supported former Republican candidates Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.

His politics were firm on the war in Ukraine and he spent months there working as an aid volunteer. “I am willing to go and die for democracy and the kids of Ukraine,” he wrote on social media.

In a New York Times interview in 2023, Mr Routh said “I’m just a US citizen that’s helping out”, before floating the idea of smuggling foreign nationals into Ukraine.

Routh in Kyiv. Picture: AFP

The suspect’s son, 35-year-old Oran Routh, released a statement saying his father was “not a violent person”.

“He’s a hard worker and a great dad. He’s a great dude, a nice guy and has worked his whole f..king life,” he said.

The second assassination attempt on Mr Trump’s life since his ear was grazed by an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, led to Republicans again criticising the Secret Service’s failure to secure the former president’s safety as they attacked Democrats for using incendiary rhetoric about the former president.

Mr Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate, called on the Secret Service to “immediately step up its protection for President Trump to the same level they provide to Biden, there’s no excuse not to at this point”.

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said the Senate’s investigations into the security lapses in Butler cited mismanagement within the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, as well as funding and morale issues.

“They’ve lost their focus … they need more resources. These agents just work; they have no lives,” he said.

Ms Harris said she was “deeply disturbed” by the attempted assassination, releasing a statement in which she added: “I will be clear: I condemn political violence. We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.”

Secret Service and Homeland Security agents check a former home associated with the suspect. Picture: Reuters

Michael Matranga, a former Secret Service agent who once protected Barack Obama, told The New York Times the service should “seriously consider giving former president Trump the same or equal package as the President of the United States” and called the incidents “unprecedented”.

Mr Biden said he was “relieved that the former president is unharmed”, adding that he had “directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former president’s continued safety”.

Senator Vance said: “I’m glad President Trump is safe. I spoke to him before the news was public and he was, amazingly, in good spirits.”

The latest attempt on Mr Trump’s life gave Republicans a chance to reset their campaign for the White House, which has flagged since Ms Harris was judged to have won the first and possibly only presidential debate last week.

Betting markets didn’t noticeably move in the wake of the incident, suggesting the latest attempt on Mr Trump’s life was yet to tangibly effect the election campaign.

An FBI agent takes picture of the evidence of the crime scene outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Picture: AFP

In an April social media post, Mr Routh said of the campaign: “Democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose. We cannot afford to fail. The world is counting on us to show the way.”