The gunman who allegedly staked out former President Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course with an SKS rifle was able to exploit a security hole that the Secret Service has known about for years.
News photographers — including those hired by The Post — have had no problem repeatedly securing spots around the perimeter of the course to snap pictures of Trump playing golf or driving around in a golf cart.
They have even taken images — which require a clear line of sight to the 45th president — unnoticed through the bushes with telephoto lenses. Some have gotten as close as 75 yards — without so much as a sideways glance from the Secret Service.
“They’re always amazed how close they can get to Trump and his entourage — it’s easy for them,” one photo agency source told The Post.
Photographers typically announce themselves to the Secret Service so they are not mistaken for threats, but the source said agents are easy enough to evade.
The shocking near-miss attempt on Trump’s life came barely two months after Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to climb on a roof and fire eight shots at Trump — nicking his ear — at a rally in Butler, Pa. on July 13.
Authorities say Ryan Wesley Routh got within 300 to 500 yards of Trump after spending 12 hours in a makeshift sniper nest just outside the fence along Summit Boulevard, a busy thoroughfare of Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach.
The golf club — which Trump frequents when he is staying at Mar-a-Lago — is a sprawling, wide-open expanse covering hundreds of acres, lined with dense tropical foliage and tree cover.
The source said photogs can snag pics of Trump “shockingly easily” at his West Palm Beach course, one noting “dozens” of covert gaps in the thick brush around the border.
Here’s what we know about the assassination attempt on Trump in Florida:
- Former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Sept. 15, 2024.
- Trump sent out a statement to supporters soon after to report that he was “SAFE AND WELL.”
- The suspect — identified as Ryan Routh, 58, of Hawaii — was able to get within 300 to 500 yards of Trump at a chain link fence on the edge of the course, where he had an AK-47 and a GoPro camera set up, apparently to record the planned shooting.
- Routh has a history of supporting progressive causes online and has made 19 donations to Democratic candidates since 2019.
- A Secret Service agent spotted and opened fire on Routh as he put his gun through the fence. The suspect fled and was arrested on I-95 a short time later.
- According to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Trump’s security detail was lighter because he isn’t a sitting president — despite the previous attempt on his life in July.
In areas where there’s no obvious break in the tree line, dedicated snoops can still sneak a view of the course. Some of the lighter flora can simply be pulled apart by hand, easily creating new gaps where just about anyone can watch golfers in action without being seen, the source said.
Even on rare instances when Secret Service agents do see a photographer near the course, they’re rarely questioned, the source said.
The security detail is also exceedingly easy to see approaching on their golf carts, meaning photographers can keep an eye out for them and then hang back and lie low until Trump arrives.
“If they do approach the photographers, sometimes they quickly check their credentials but that’s about it,” the source claims.
The outside of the course is dotted with “No Trespassing” signs, but photographers are easily able to take their pictures from behind those signs, and they’re certainly no deterrent for someone up to no good.
Trump was playing the fifth hole when Secret Service snipers noticed Routh’s gun barrel poking through a chain link fence between the sixth and seventh holes and opened fire on the suspect.
However, the location Routh chose to lie in wait in West Palm Beach wasn’t particularly favorable for photographers, owing to tricky angles and long distances.
“Routh could easily have picked a better spot, but maybe he was worried about being seen by a photographer,” the source added.
The source said it’s even easier to take pictures at the former president’s other Florida golf complex, Trump National Doral, about 77 miles from West Palm Beach.
Doral has four courses, including the famed “Blue Monster,” which is “wide open” for photographers to take pictures.
On the other end of the security spectrum when it comes to Trump’s portfolio of golf resorts is his course in Bedminster, NJ, where state police often shut down adjacent roadways when the former president is hitting the links, and even photo agency sources concede getting any photos there is very difficult to impossible.
As for the lapses Sunday in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said Trump’s security detail was lighter because he’s only a candidate for president — not the commander in chief.
“At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president,” Bradshaw told reporters at a press conference early Sunday evening. “If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded.
Routh, 58, fled after being fired upon by Secret Service agents, but was arrested on I-95 in Palm City, about 40 miles north of Trump’s golf course, thanks in no small part to an eyewitness who spied the accused gunman getting into a black Nissan to flee the scene and took a photo to share with law enforcement.
He appeared, smiling and wearing shackles on his hands and feet, in a Florida federal court Monday morning as he was hit with felony gun charges.
— With additional reporting by Joe Marino