Former US President Donald Trump, who is seeking a return to the White House in November’s election, described the assassination attempt he faced on a golf course in Florida over the weekend during an appearance at a Space X event.
Trump recounted that he was playing golf when he heard “probably four or five gunshots” at close range. He was then immediately evacuated from the site by the Secret Service, which Trump praised for a job well done. Once security detected danger, they “moved pretty briskly,” the former US president described, adding that agents responded as soon as they saw the barrel of the rifle. That’s why they started shooting at the armed 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh. Routh fled the scene and was later caught by police.
Trump himself, in his words, would have liked to finish the ball in the hole at that moment, “but we decided to get out of there,” he said in his first public appearance after the attack. The former president also recalled a previous assassination attempt he faced in July in Butler, Pennsylvania. There, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from a nearby suburb of Pittsburgh shot at Trump, after several shots he was killed on the spot by snipers. Crooks left no message explaining his actions and did not appear to have expressed strong political views or hatred towards the ex-president.
The suspect in Sunday’s assassination attempt has so far heard two charges related to the illegal possession of a firearm. According to the AP agency, however, it is possible that even more serious charges will be brought against him. According to US Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, the suspect did not fire any shots during the alleged assassination attempt.
Both suspects in the assassination attempts — whom Trump called “radical leftists” — were influenced by the rhetoric of his political enemies, according to the former president. He alluded to moments when he was called a “danger to democracy”. “Maybe God wants me to be president to save this country,” Trump said.
After Sunday’s incident, President Joe Biden expressed relief that Trump was fine and said there was no place for political violence in the US. He later told reporters that the Secret Service “needs more help.”
According to CNN, the campaign of Kamala Harris, who will face Trump in the November election, will not make a political statement about Sunday’s incident, and any statement will be in the same vein as the White House’s previous statement. “This is not a political moment,” said an aide to the Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign.