Washington.- The 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 golfing safely, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation.
The agency’s acting director, Ronald L. Rowe Jr., made the recommendation in a meeting with Trump on 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 a second assassination attempt on the former president in a span of just two months. And it also comes at a time when, behind the scenes, tensions between the Trump campaign and the Secret Service have been escalating. Trump asked Rowe if it was safe for him to continue playing golf, one of the people said. Rowe talked about the difficulties of securing courses that are near public roads and said some were easier to secure than others.
It’s unclear what changes Trump will make to his golf schedule after the meeting, and some in the Republican’s orbit are frustrated at the idea that he might have to cut back on his weekly activity. They questioned why President Joe Biden was able to visit open beaches but Trump should have to restrict his golf, especially considering that other former presidents regularly play the sport.
But Trump and Biden do not receive the same level of security. One is a sitting president, and the other is a former president. Trump’s level of Secret Service protection was reduced after 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 current intensity of the threats. Biden has called on the Secret Service to provide any additional resources necessary to keep Trump safe. Golf remains more than a hobby for Trump — it is an important part of his identity, as well as a way to socialize and an outlet as he faces 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 saw Routh poking the barrel of a gun out of bushes on the course’s perimeter, that agent opened fire, prompting Routh to run toward his car, authorities said. Routh left behind a semiautomatic rifle, a scope, two backpacks and a Go-Pro camera, suggesting he intended to film the shooting, authorities said. Police stopped him on the side of Interstate 95 about 45 minutes after a witness, who saw him fleeing, photographed his license plate. At their meeting Monday, Rowe told Trump that it was difficult to protect his sprawling golf courses because they have so much open space, one of the people briefed on the meeting said. The courses are close to public roads, and the fact that photographers, using long-range lenses, could capture Trump on their greens and fairways suggests that a skilled marksman could have a clear line of sight on him. The former president raised some of those concerns himself in the meeting with Rowe, one of the people with knowledge of the meeting said. Rowe told Trump that the Secret Service finds the golf course at Joint Base Andrews easier to secure than some of its courses because it is 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 busier as the November election approaches, it’s unclear how much golf he will be able to play in the final 49 days, one aide said. Danielle Alvarez, a campaign spokeswoman, declined to comment on Monday’s private news conference. She pointed to Trump’s social media post Sunday, in which he praised the Secret Service and law enforcement. “It was certainly an interesting day!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, adding in all caps: “The work done was absolutely outstanding.” In a private conversation shortly after the gunman interrupted his game, Trump told Sen. Lindsey Graham that his Secret Service team had been “amazing,” Graham, R-S.C., later 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 provided the former president with the level of resources the campaign has requested. A Secret Service spokesman said Rowe declined to comment on private conversations involving someone the agency protects.
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