Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is “always concerned” about the safety of rallies and accused the White House of making it “very difficult” to provide adequate security.
President Trump, 78, made the remarks in an interview. NewsNation's “CUOMO” programHe is preparing for a weekend rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the first assassination attempt occurred.
Asked if he was worried about Butler's safety ahead of his long-awaited return, the former president said, “Yeah, I'm always worried.”
“I don't think the White House is treating us very well,” he added. “I have crowds that are 10, 20 times bigger than anyone else's. And we have a right to safety.”
Calls for President Trump to receive the same level of Secret Service protection as President Biden have grown in the wake of a second assassination attempt last month at the former president's golf course in Palm Beach, Florida.
Sharp-eyed Secret Service agents successfully thwarted an apparent plot by would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh to shoot President Trump, but the Republican presidential candidate is not the current commander in chief. Security around the golf course was lax.
The House and Senate unanimously passed legislation last month that would strengthen Secret Service protection for Trump, bringing it to the same level as currently provided to the sitting president and vice president.
Biden, 81, signed the bill on Tuesday.
President Trump said the White House is making it “very difficult” to put in place the necessary safety precautions for large gatherings.
“Something happened in Wisconsin last week. There were supposed to be 60,000 people and they couldn't provide us with security,” he claimed.
President Trump went on to say, “We are being treated very unfairly.” “And we need to tighten up security. In fact, that's being led more by the White House than anyone else.”
The 45th president said he believes the Secret Service is “doing a good job” despite two assassination attempts, but said there appears to be a limit to the amount of resources that can be provided by the White House. .
“[T]”We're only allowed to do what the White House allows us to do,” Trump said.
The former president said recent Congressional support to increase the level of Secret Service protection “is the first unanimous vote in Congress that I can remember.”
Trump's Oct. 5 rally is scheduled to be held at the Butler Farm Show, the same venue where he was shot in the ear by Thomas Matthew Crooks 12 weeks ago.
Crooks, 20, seriously injured two rally-goers and killed a third before being shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
A Senate inquiry into the shooting found numerous “preventable” security failures by the Secret Service leading up to the tragedy.
