Eric Trump criticized the Secret Service for not doing enough to protect Donald Trump and revealed his fears for his father.
Donald Trump’s second son appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show to question the agency’s actions following the second assassination attempt on his father’s life.
“One bullet can change the history of this country forever,” he said. “How many more times will we be left speechless? When will we finally be able to come to an agreement?”
He also asked for more resources for the Secret Service to prevent a third attack on Donald Trump.
“They have to get the resources necessary to keep our political leaders safe. We have to do a better job. We can’t have a third incident. There won’t be a third incident. We can’t have this conversation again. We’ve had too many.”
Republicans have expressed outrage at how close Donald Trump came to being assassinated. Don Jr. and Eric have also led the charge in defense of their father, calling for more protection for him.
“I hope he’s protected, I hope he’s safe,” Eric Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hanity of his father Donald Trump.
In his Fox interview, Eric Trump praised the Secret Service agents on the ground Sunday at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, who spotted the rifle barrel sticking out of a fence and quickly moved the former president to safety.
“These officers on the ground are extraordinary. They are extraordinary. And thank God they were there,” he said.
But he later said two assassination attempts in three months were unacceptable, referring to the attempted shooting at a protest in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13 and the incident on Sunday.
‘At some point, there’s going to be a breakdown. There’s going to be a breakdown. I mean, this is two assault rifles within 300 meters of the president, the first one within 130 meters of the president in a five-week period. And there are only so many opportunities in the world. You’re only given so many lives.’
And he revealed his true fear of Donald Trump: “Let me be clear: they are trying to kill the man. They are trying to kill my father.”
Eric Trump raised the question — as others have — of why the perimeter around Trump’s golf course was not secured and how the suspect was able to camp just outside the fence for nearly 12 hours without being caught.
“How can that happen?” he asked.
He noted how close his father came to being killed: “A The 300-yard shot is a lay-up shot with the scoped rifle. That’s a shot my six-year-old son can do all the time. These are lay-up shots.
“I hope he’s protected, I hope he’s safe,” she said of Donald Trump.
She also blamed Democratic rhetoric for causing her father to be targeted. Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have denounced political violence. But Donald Trump has also blamed Democrats for inciting violence against him.
And Eric pointed out that only his father has been the target of assassination attempts.
“The bullets only go one way,” he said. “It’s interesting how that works. That guy over there takes every bullet literally and figuratively.”
He called on Democrats to “tone it down.”
Ryan Routh was arrested by Palm Beach police on Sunday
New details emerged early Monday about how Trump stalker Ryan Routh may have been stalking the former president for more than 11 hours at Trump’s golf course in Florida.
And the high-powered rifle Routh had with him may have been purchased abroad.
The details were revealed in a document filed Monday charging Routh, 58, with firearms-related offenses. Sunday’s incident is the second such attempt on Trump’s life in the past three months.
Officials discovered that the loaded 7.62×39 SKS-style rifle had a serial number that was “obliterated and illegible to the naked eye.”
The agent who wrote the complaint said the rifles are not manufactured in Florida and that the rifle has likely “traveled in interstate or foreign commerce.”
Meanwhile, cell phone location data obtained by the FBI indicates that Routh “was located in the vicinity of the tree line area” at the Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach from shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday until approximately 1:30 p.m.
That’s when a Secret Service agent, who was monitoring Trump’s route ahead, saw the barrel of a gun sticking out from a nearby fence and fired at Routh. Trump was quickly evacuated.
The details suggest some level of pre-planning on Routh’s part. In addition, the fact that he spent some 12 hours on the golf course undetected has raised questions about Secret Service protective procedures.
Officials said Routh was on the public side of the perimeter fence at Trump’s golf course when the agent saw the muzzle of the rifle.
Police are still investigating all the details, including where the suspect obtained the AK-style rifle, his movements before the incident and whether anyone else was involved.
It is unclear where Routh may have parked and waited for the former president, who is known to play golf regularly at his West Palm Beach club when he is at his nearby Mar-a-Lago home.
Local police have increased security around the golf club, even closing the road leading to it to traffic other than local traffic.
At the time the agent saw the gun on Sunday, Trump was on the fifth hole at his Palm Beach golf club. The agent was on the sixth hole, doing a visual sweep ahead of the former president, when he saw the barrel of the rifle.
Routh was less than 500 yards from Trump when he was captured.
Acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe said Monday that Routh was unable to fire a single shot and never had Trump in his “line of sight.”
‘As former President Trump was moving down the fifth fairway, across the course and out of sight of the sixth green, the officer, who was visually sweeping the sixth green area, saw the subject armed with what he perceived to be a rifle and immediately discharged his firearm,’ the officer said.
The Secret Service was criticized for failing to secure a wide enough perimeter around Trump at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to assassinate the former president.
But, Rowe noted, the agency had a security plan for Trump’s golf outing, which he said was not scheduled.
“We put together a security plan and that security plan worked,” he said at a news conference Monday.
Acting Director of the U.S. Secret Service Ronald Rowe Jr. speaks during a press conference
Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach
In the treeline area where Routh fled, officers found a digital camera, two purses, a loaded, scoped 7.62×39 SKS rifle and a black plastic bag containing food.
On Sunday, after the Secret Service fired shots and Routh fled, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office began stopping the vehicle and Routh was taken into custody at 2:14 p.m. Deputies said the license plate on the Nissan he was in was registered to a white 2012 Ford pickup truck that has been reported stolen.
Ryan was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Investigators are attempting to restore the serial number so they can trace its origin.
Authorities said he did not appear to have fired the gun. The only shots apparently came from the Secret Service. Even if Routh had not fired the gun, he could face an attempted murder charge.
“We are investigating this matter as an apparent assassination attempt on former President Trump,” FBI Special Agent Jeffrey Veltri of the Miami Field Office said Monday afternoon at a news conference.
The Secret Service later discovered a rifle, a backpack and a GoPro video camera taped to the fence near where Routh was seen.
Routh appeared in federal court in West Palm Beach for a brief hearing Monday morning wearing a blue prison jumpsuit.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe ordered Routh held without bail until a detention hearing scheduled for Sept. 23.
Police personnel investigate the area around the Trump International Golf Club
Law enforcement photos show fringes hanging from a fence over a rifle leaning against it.
Ryan Routh in federal court on Monday
Routh has a lengthy criminal history in North Carolina, including a felony conviction for possession of a weapon of mass destruction and multiple felony charges of possession of stolen property.
He also has ties to Hawaii, where he worked in construction and led a group that built housing for the homeless.
He was actively involved in efforts to recruit soldiers for the fight against Russia in Ukraine. He traveled to Ukraine in 2022 and later wrote a book: ‘Ukraine’s Unwinnable War’.
A video shot by AP showed Routh at a small rally in kyiv’s Independence Square in April 2022, two months after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of the country.
In the self-published book, which is available on Amazon, Routh was highly critical of Trump and even encouraged Iran to assassinate him.
“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote of Iran.
Routh, who has been active on social media, said he voted for Trump in 2016 but, in a June 2020 post, criticized him.
“I and the world hoped that President Trump would be different and better than the candidate,” she wrote. “I will be glad when you are gone.”
He didn’t seem to be a fan of President Joe Biden, either.
“Sleepy Joe stands for nothing, has no plans, no ideas,” X wrote in a March 5, 2020 post.