Trump’s security at West Palm golf course was lighter because he’s not the ‘sitting president’: law enforcement

In a press conference on Sunday after the second apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump in the last few months, the sheriff was asked by reporters about the level of security.

"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 that the Secret Service deems possible,” Bradshaw told the press.

“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.”

Bradshaw said that it would have been difficult to identify the suspect earlier because there was "shrubbery" around the golf course.

Reported suspect Ryan Wesley Roth, who has been described to be in his 60s, was able to get on the golf course with a gun and was around 400 to 500 yards away from Trump, who was playing a game of golf on Sunday. USSS agents saw him near the edge of the golf course and then engaged him with around four to five shots. The suspect took off in an SUV and was arrested in the neighboring county.

The comments from the sheriff come as USSS has been facing more scrutiny about not doing a good enough job of protecting government officials after Trump was nearly killed in July at a Butler, Pennsylvania rally. In that instance, would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to evade USSS agents and climb up on a roof around 150 yards away from Trump with a rifle.