Donald Trump on Sunday sought to rally his supporters with news of a possible second attempt on his life, blasting out a campaign fundraising appeal that said \u201cthere are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us\u201d as his advisers urged campaign staff to be \u201cvigilant\u201d about security.<\/p>\n
Trump was golfing at his West Palm Beach, Fla., club on Sunday when a Secret Service agent spotted a man with a rifle with a scope in the tree line, officials said. Secret Service opened fire, and the suspect was eventually apprehended. The FBI is investigating the incident as a possible assassination attempt, but authorities have released little information about the suspect.<\/p>\n
Trump was uninjured, according to his campaign. But the episode renewed questions about Trump\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n
The Secret Service is probing breakdowns in security that allowed a gunman to fire down from a nearby rooftop at a July 13 Trump rally in Butler, Pa., killing an audience member and leaving Trump bloodied. Investigators have not pinpointed what drove the now-deceased shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who had pictures of both Biden and Trump on his phone and did not show signs of a political motive.<\/p>\n
\u201c[We] must ask ourselves how an assassin was allowed to get this close to President Trump again?\u201d Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) said in a statement. \u201cThere continues to be a lack of answers for the horrific assassination attempt in Pennsylvania and we expect there to be a clear explanation of what happened in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said that if Trump was still president, \u201cwe would have had the entire golf course surrounded. Because he\u2019s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s top campaign advisers, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, called the suspect an \u201cevil monster\u201d in an email to campaign staff and said no one on the golf course or accompanying Trump was hurt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a matter that we take lightly,\u201d they wrote in an email, according to a person familiar with it who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal communications. \u201cYour safety is always our top priority. We ask that you remain vigilant in your daily comings and goings. Be observant and maintain a constant level of situational awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democratic leaders denounced violence after the shooting at Trump\u2019s rally and did so again on Sunday. It is not yet clear if the suspect in the golf club incident had a political motive. But Trump\u2019s campaign has repeatedly accused Democrats of endangering Trump\u2019s life by calling him a threat to democracy \u2014 a reference to Trump\u2019s failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election \u2014 and LaCivita echoed that message on Sunday.<\/p>\n
He shared a video in which Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calls Trump \u201ca threat to our democracy\u201d and says, \u201cwe together must do everything in our power to defeat Trump and his MAGA allies this November.\u201d In another post, LaCivita predicted Trump\u2019s critics would not tone down their rhetoric.<\/p>\n
The July 13 shooting helped rally Republicans behind Trump and seize political momentum just before he formally accepted the GOP nomination.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign moved quickly on Sunday to solicit a new wave of donations, sending out an email to supporters that read: \u201cNothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER! I will always love you for supporting me. Unity. Peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
The message linked to a fundraising page that added, \u201cthere are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us. I will not stop fighting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texts from the campaign shared the fundraising link with the same call for \u201cUNITY. PEACE.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump also called for unity after the rally shooting in Pennsylvania and praised law enforcement repeatedly for protecting him. But in the weeks that followed he stoked unfounded claims about the attack as well.<\/p>\n
He suggested without evidence that his political rivals, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, personally made it more difficult for the Secret Service to protect him leading up to the Butler shooting. And he did not push back when a right-wing podcast host, Monica Crowley, accused government agencies of \u201cslow-walking\u201d evidence and asked Trump, \u201cDoes it look increasingly to you like this was a suspicious, maybe even inside job?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very suspicious,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThe more you see it, the more you start to say, \u2018There could be something else.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump and his campaign said little about the Sunday golf course incident in the hours immediately afterward. Early in the evening, Trump had yet to write anything about it on Truth Social, his social media site where he posts prolifically.<\/p>\n
On the social media site X, Trump\u2019s \u201cWar Room\u201d account shared a brief, initial campaign statement about shots fired and reposted a message from Trump\u2019s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m glad President Trump is safe. I spoke to him before the news was public and he was, amazingly, in good spirits,\u201d Vance wrote early Sunday evening. \u201cStill much we don\u2019t know, but I\u2019ll be hugging my kids extra tight tonight and saying a prayer of gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally, also said he spoke with Trump. \u201cHe\u2019s in good spirits and he is more resolved than ever to save our country,\u201d Graham wrote on X.<\/p>\n
Trending topics on the social media site reflected the country\u2019s polarized response. \u201cPray for President Trump\u201d trended as well as \u201cStaged\u201d \u2014 as some social media users promoted the baseless claim the golf course incident was staged.<\/p>\n
Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, said on social media that she was briefed on the matter and glad Trump is safe. \u201cViolence has no place in America,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
Harris\u2019s running mate, Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, shared a similar statement: \u201cViolence has no place in our country. It\u2019s not who we are as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he and his wife spent \u201ca few hours\u201d with Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the shooting. Johnson wrote on social media that he and his wife \u201care thanking God for protecting [Trump] today \u2014 once again,\u201d and said, \u201cNo leader in American history has endured more attacks and remained so strong and resilient. He is unstoppable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s advisers were relatively quiet on social media immediately after the incident. But Dan Scavino Jr., a senior adviser on the campaign, alluded to Trump\u2019s words right after the Pennsylvania rally shooting, which became a political rallying cry. \u201cFIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!!!\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump on Sunday sought to rally his supporters with news of a possible second attempt on his life, blasting out a campaign fundraising appeal that said \u201cthere are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us\u201d as his advisers urged campaign staff to be \u201cvigilant\u201d about security. Trump was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}