That a gunman got close to former President Trump for the second time in about two months intensified questions about the agency’s broader protective capabilities.
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The Secret Service was facing scrutiny even before the apparent assassination attempt at the former president’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday.
A gunman was spotted within shooting distance of former President Donald J. Trump for the second time in about two months — stopped only by the swift, keen-eyed response of Secret Service agents — raising new questions about the agency’s broader ability to protect candidates in its charge.
The Secret Service significantly bolstered Mr. Trump’s protective detail after coming under intense criticism following an attempt on his life in Butler, Pa., on July 13. That beefed-up detail, which includes additional agents and enhanced on-the-ground intelligence, might have played a role in the outcome this weekend, current and former officials said.
Yet the fact that a gunman was able to get a semiautomatic rifle with a telescopic sight so close to the former president, roughly 300 to 500 yards away, underscored how many urgent problems exposed in Butler remained unresolved — and how difficult it is for the Secret Service to respond to an unpredictable and increasingly violent political environment.
As in Butler, the biggest issues in Mr. Trump’s protection seem to involve securing the protective perimeter of a targeted site, even one they know as well as Mr. Trump’s properties. The would-be shooter positioned himself in the bushes on the perimeter of the former president’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla. A Secret Service agent was one hole ahead of Mr. Trump on the course and spotted the barrel of a gun, prompting agents to open fire on the man, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of Palm Beach County said at a news conference on Sunday.
Sheriff Bradshaw said that Mr. Trump — one of the most polarizing figures in the world — still retains a protective detail that is smaller than the one given to a sitting president. That, he said, limits the protections that the Secret Service and its local partners can provide.
“At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president — if he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded,” Sheriff Bradshaw said.
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Source: nytimes.com
