Former President Donald Trump has faced two assassination attempts in roughly two months and could still be at risk of new ones, experts warned Fox News Digital.
“This isn't the last attempt. They're going to keep coming at him,” said former SWAT commander Gene Petrino. Plantation Florida Police Department “I think it's a good idea to have someone look at this and say, 'I'm not sure what to do,'” the mass shootings expert, who has worked in the investigation for 26 years, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
“Others will agree. The only responsible thing to do now is to further beef up his security,” Petrino added.
Trump was escorted safely off the green on Sunday after suspect Ryan Routh allegedly pointed a rifle at the 45th president just outside his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Routh fled the scene but was arrested on Interstate 95 a short time later.
Trump blames Biden-Harris 'comments' for latest assassination attempt, says they'll 'save the country'
On the left is former President Donald Trump, and on the right is Ryan Rouse. (Getty Images)
Authorities are investigating the incident as an assassination attempt on President Trump.
On July 13, Trump held a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was shot in the ear by 20-year-old Matthew Crooks, who opened fire on the president from a nearby rooftop, wounding two other rally-goers and killing local father and volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore.
The July attack came just two days before the Republican National Convention was set to begin in Milwaukee. Trump attended the convention despite the attack and was seen with a bandaged ear when he accepted the GOP presidential nomination.
“The amazing thing is that if I had not moved my head at the last moment before the shot was fired, the assassin's bullet would have been perfectly on target and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together,” Trump said in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.
Former President Donald Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“Bullets were whizzing over us, and I remained calm. But now those Secret Service agents were putting themselves in danger. They were in very dangerous territory,” Trump continued. “The bullets whizzed right over them, missing them by inches, and then it all stopped. Our Secret Service sniper, from a great distance, took the assassin's life with one bullet. He was taken down.”
“That's my fear. When it rains, it pours… I don't think it will stop at two degrees.”
Unlike Crooks, no shots were fired in Sunday's attack, which appeared to be an assassination attempt, because a Secret Service agent spotted Crooks and fired first.
Armed man arrested at Trump golf course, Ryan Routh, frequently posts about Trump and politics
Former President Donald Trump watches the Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Monday, July 15, 2024. (Photo: Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
While Petrino on Sunday praised the actions of the Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies in protecting Trump before the unthinkable happened, the effort has raised concerns among security experts.
“They did a great job this time. They seemed to be on the ball,” he said, adding that he thought Trump's security forces “should have tried harder” to catch Routh before he was just about 300 yards from the 45th president.
FBI agents remove boxes of evidence from the perimeter of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. Ryan Routh was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump by hiding in bushes along the golf course. (Mega from Fox News Digital)
Bill Stanton, a former New York Police Department officer and expert on executive security, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that he worries bad actors could try again to kill President Trump.
“That's my fear. When it rains, it pours. I don't think it's going to stop at two degrees,” Stanton said.
Both Stanton and Petrino have called for increased security around Trump, echoing calls from Congress to provide Trump with increased security following the second attempt.
“It is essential that USSS units assigned to President Trump be given additional protective resources, including increased personnel, to provide greater coverage,” Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) and Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) wrote in a letter to Acting Secretary Ronald Lowe on Tuesday.
Senators Marshall and Tuberville, along with Senators James Risch (R-Idaho), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), called on Senator Rowe and the Secret Service to “designate President Trump as a protected person with the same level of protective resources available to a sitting President.”
Trump assassin suspect laughs and smiles at first court appearance in Florida
Ryan W. Routh, the man accused of trying to assassinate Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump at a golf course in West Palm Beach, stands in handcuffs after being arrested on a traffic ticket near Palm City, Florida, on Sept. 15, 2024. (Martin County Sheriff's Office/Distributed via Reuters)
Trump, Petrino and Stanton blamed inflammatory political rhetoric for the second attack, with Trump pointing in particular to rhetoric from the Biden-Harris administration.
“[The suspect] “I believed what Biden and Harris said and I acted on it,” Trump told Fox News Digital on Monday. “I'm being shot at for what they said, but I'm the man who's supposed to save our country and they're destroying it from the inside out.”
The White House continues to call Trump a “threat” to democracy despite multiple attempts to assassinate the former president.
In the interview, Trump pointed to past comments by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris describing him as a “threat to democracy” and told Americans they were leaders of “unity.”
“It's called the enemy from within. They are the real threat,” Trump said.
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department deputies patrol outside the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. Ryan Routh was arrested yesterday at the Florida golf course on suspicion of an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. (Mega from Fox News Digital)
During a White House press conference on Tuesday, Fox News' Peter Doocy asked whether the administration would stop describing President Trump as a “threat” in the wake of the second assassination attempt. In his questioning, Doocy noted that Trump has made similar attacks against Biden and Harris.
House Democratic Leader Says 'MAGA Must Stop' After Second Report of Trump Assassination Attempt
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the use of the word, citing the January 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
Trump is back on the campaign trail this week, heading to Long Island for a campaign rally on Wednesday before a false report circulated on social media that an explosive device had been found in a car near where Trump was scheduled to speak.
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Local officials quickly dismissed the reports as false, but they highlight ongoing concerns and potential threats to President Trump.
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