‘A great job’: Trump praises Secret Service after assassination attempt

Donald Trump has recounted the second attempt on his life for the first time, saying he was playing golf with friends at his Florida course when they heard “shots being fired in the air”.

In his first speaking appearance since the assassination attempt, Trump told Farokh Sarmad, a crypto enthusiast hosting the interview as part of the launch of his sons’ crypto platform, the Secret Service leapt into action and led him off the course.

Donald Trump and the backpack, GoPro and rifle found by police in the bushes of his golf course.Credit: AP

“The Secret Service knew immediately it was bullets,” he said, during the interview on X on Tuesday (AEST).

“They grabbed me. We got into the carts and moved along pretty good.”

He joked: “I would have loved to have sank that last putt.”

Trump spoke of his amazement at how a Secret Service agent noticed the barrel of suspect Ryan Wesley Routh’s AK-47-style rifle poking out of the bushes, a level of attentiveness which ultimately saved his life.

“How good is that? He only saw the barrel,” he said.

He praised the civilian woman who noticed suspicious activity in the area and took photos of Routh’s car and licence plate, leading to his arrest.

“Within a fairly short period, they tracked him down, they got him,” Trump said.

“The civilian did a phenomenal job, the Secret Service did a great job, everybody did a great job.”

Ronald Rowe, the acting director of the beleaguered Secret Service, signalled it would need to reconsider the way it operates following the second attempt on Trump’s life.

The US Secret Service urgently needs more resources in order to protect America’s leaders, the head of the elite agency admitted.

He cast the Secret Service’s response to the incident on Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course as a success, despite phone records suggesting the suspect was on the perimeter for around 12 hours.

“He did not fire or get off any shots at our agent,” Rowe told reporters.

Trump’s increased security detail following the attempt on his life in July, “allowed for the early identification of the threat and led to a safe evacuation”, he said.

However, Rowe suggested that Trump’s late decision to play a round of golf did not allow for a full sweep of the golf course’s perimeter.

Trump earlier said he needed more people on his security detail and suggested he told that to Joe Biden when the president called him.

“He was very nice today. He called up to make sure I was OK, to make sure that, you know, do I have any suggestions ... we do need more people on my detail because we have 50-60,000 people showing up to events … but he couldn’t have been nicer,” Trump said in an interview on X.

The Telegraph, London