It's been seven-plus hours since Secret Service agents fired at a man and later captured him after he was spotted with an automatic weapon outside the grounds at Trump's golf course at Mar-a-lago within one hole of where Trump was playing. More details will emerge in the coming days but it's not too early to begin anticipating how this event will be turned into another front in the 2024 election battle and the larger political war and Rorschach test that American civics have become.
What is known is that the man involved in the incident had not yet actually FIRED his weapon but was clearly staking out a position that would be well within range of Trump on a normal round of golf. And it's worth re-mentioning the man was NOT actually ON the grounds of the course. He was outside a security fence in shrubbery able to point through a fence at the holes in front of him. The man fled the scene, left his weapon behind and was later captured and identified as a 58 year-old named Ryan Wesley Routh who appears to be originally from Hawaii and spent some time in North Carolina. Different outlets are pointing out he contributed a total of $140 dollars to various Democratic candidates since 2019 but also tweeted comments to Republican candidates encouraging them to stay in the race against Trump. He has eight arrests in North Carolina going back to roughly 2000, mostly for "minor offenses." (It isn't clear to me how minor offenses can consistently result in arrests.) He also claims to have been active in recruiting people to fight in Ukraine against Russia and actually fighting in Ukraine, though there are no details on what that "service" was. Once source indicates he claimed to lead an organization called the International Volunteer Center (IVC) which stated it organized efforts to delivery humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
The golf course at Mar-a-lago is located "five minutes" from the actual Mar-a-lago club and contains 27 holes. The fact that it is "five minutes" from the main club means any time Trump is on the course, it is a completely separate security zone that must be somehow guarded by the Secret Service, while still protecting any other Trump family members still remaining at the club itself.
Given that Trump golfs frequently and a zone should be ideally secured hours before he enters the zone, frequent golf outings essentially double the Secret Service work load. If the Secret Service was going to guard the ENTIRE zone, they would have to secure the ENTIRE perimeter which would be astronomically expensive and impractical... So they don't. Instead, the normal modus operandi seems to involve securing a smaller moving "bubble" that might be plus or minus one hole around the current hole he is playing, plus presumably any other holes that might be adjacent to the current hole.
In this golf course event, the would-be shooter was exactly that. He didn't even fire a shot. He was identified and shot AT and fled the scene without directing fire at Trump and was later apprehended. Given the nature of the threats facing any protectee, that's exactly what should happen.
That's a very difficult logistical task. But remember... Trump owns several golf courses and routinely plays at all of them, often in the same week. He held an outdoor press conference at his golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes near Los Angeles on Saturday, September 14 that required agent coverage to secure. That appeared to take place just outside the clubhouse next to a practice green.
Prior to the Trump era, the Secret Service was never funded and staffed to cover the logistics and costs of protecting a President or ex-President with four or five principal residences in five different states, each with dozens of acres of ground theoretically requiring full perimeter protection. Nixon had San Clemente. Carter had his house in Plains. Reagan had Rancho de Cielo. Bush had Kennebunkport. Clinton had... (I can't even find a reference to Clinton's non-WH residence during his term). Dubya had his ranch in Texas. Obama had a home in Chicago.
Think about it this way. If each Trump residence was going to be given the traditional perimeter monitoring and protection afforded to the properties owned by any prior President or ex-President, Trump's lifestyle essentially raised the budget requirement by a factor of 5x. Permanently. Beginning in 2017. Has the Secret Service budget increased by 5x since 2017? None of us will ever know but I'm pretty sure the answer is no.
Given the nature of a golf course amid a metropolitan area, here are a few questions worth asking.
- Is there no way to chain together a series of holes on a 27-hole course to yield an 18-hole game that AVOIDS play on holes on the perimeter of the course abutting external public areas?
- Was Trump advised of this obvious inherent danger by Secret Service staff?
- Did he ignore a recommendation NOT to play outdoors at the course because of these risks?
- Will the FBI find any "smoking gun" communications in the man's online communications, texts to acquaintances, etc. reflecting a clear threat that went unprocessed?
Remember, there seem to be very few things the Secret Service can dictate to a protectee. Whatever a protectee wants to do and however they want to do it, the Secret Service is obligated to protect as best they can.
Let's stick with the concept that this isn't anyone's fault. It's just an event that can happen when mental health isn't appropriately funded, the public has easy access to a wide variety of weapons and public figures routinely, predictably appear in outdoor settings which are impossible to protect from long-range, high powered guns. If that's the only takeaway allowed, then I know what I'd be doing if I was President or running for President. I'd be listening very closely to my Secret Service detail and following their recommendations to the letter.
I don't want ANY elected official or person running for elected office subjected to these threats. I also don't want any other public figure or private citizen exposed to the same threat of random violence at a distance brought on by a mentally ill person or completely rational criminal. I also don't want anyone in a position of power or influence to take actions that unnecessarily raise the risk of such events and magnify the fear already being focused on people of any ideological persuasion. This madness needs to stop.
WTH
