Donald Trump raises suspicion of apparent assassination attempt as new details emerge – The Irish Times

Donald Trump gave his first detailed account of what he experienced Sunday during what the FBI called an “attempted assassination of the former president,” as authorities revealed new details about the incident at his West Palm Beach golf club.

Mr Trump said he was playing golf with friends, including businessman Steve Witkoff, when he heard gunshots.

“Everything was beautiful, it was a nice place, and all of a sudden we heard gunshots in the air, and — I guess probably four or five — and it sounded like bullets, but what do I know? But the Secret Service knew immediately that it was bullets,” Trump told cryptocurrency personality Farokh Sarmad during a live stream on X.

In his first public event since the assassination attempt, Mr. Trump thanked the Secret Service, saying that shortly after the shooting, “we got in the wagons and we were moving along pretty well. I was with an agent and the agent did a fantastic job, there was no doubt we were on the wrong track.”

“The Secret Service did a great job, everybody did a great job,” he said later.

Mr. Trump said the gunfire came from the sound of another agent pulling the barrel of a gun he saw pointing out of the bushes on the golf course, and that “the other one never fired,” appearing to refer to the alleged shooter.

( Trump assassination attempt: Suspect appears in Florida court, charged with gun crimesOpens in a new window )

Mr. Trump’s account, given on X at the launch of a cryptocurrency platform owned by his sons, largely matches what authorities said Monday. Ronald Rowe Jr., the acting director of the U.S. Secret Service, said earlier that suspected shooter Ryan Wesley Routh did not fire a shot but that an agent discharged his firearm after spotting a rifle sticking out of the fence on the golf course’s perimeter.

“He (the suspect) did not shoot or fire at our officer,” Rowe Jr. said. “Following reports of gunfire, the former president’s close protection team immediately evacuated the president to a secure location.”

Mr. Rowe also told reporters that Mr. Trump was “out of sight of the shooter” during his unscheduled visit to the golf course. Cellphone records showed that Mr. Routh camped near the golf course for about 12 hours, with food, before being confronted by a Secret Service agent.

Mr. Trump also praised the civilian who took the suspect’s license plate, which helped authorities locate his car. “The civilian did a phenomenal job,” he said.

Where Mr. Trump differed from the authorities was in his description of the political views of Mr. Routh and Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman killed in the assassination attempt on Mr. Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13.

Asked for his opinion on the possible second assassination attempt, he said: “There’s a lot of rhetoric, a lot of people think that Democrats, when they talk about ‘a threat to democracy’ and all that, are radical leftists. It seems like these two people are radical leftists.”

Mr. Routh, the man suspected of carrying out the second apparent assassination attempt on Donald Trump, has held a range of political beliefs that defy partisan definition.

Although records show that the 58-year-old former roofer made small financial donations to Democratic candidates in recent years, Mr. Routh has acknowledged that he voted for Mr. Trump in his 2016 election before embarking on an ideological odyssey whose goals appear incoherent and confusing.

Thomas Matthew Crooks’ motives remain unclear. In July, investigators said they were looking into a social media account containing anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant posts that could be linked to Crooks, FBI Assistant Director Paul Abbate said.

Earlier Monday, Mr. Trump sought to pin the blame for the shooting on President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. “Their rhetoric is that I’m the one being shot at, when I’m the one who’s going to save the country and they’re the ones who are destroying it — from the inside and the outside,” Mr. Trump told Fox News Digital.

“These are people who want to destroy our country,” he said. “They are called the enemy within. They are the real threat.”

Harris, her campaign, running mate Tim Walz and the Biden administration have condemned the political violence. The White House said earlier that Mr. Biden had called Mr. Trump and “expressed his relief that he was safe. The two men had a cordial conversation, and former President Trump expressed his thanks for the call.”

Mr Trump was impeached for inciting the insurrection on January 6, 2021, but was later acquitted when he gained enough Republican support in the Senate.

At Monday night’s X event, Mr. Trump reiterated his complaints about Mr. Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race. He said he spoke to Mr. Biden on Monday, saying he “couldn’t have been nicer.”

Mr Trump, however, attacked his presidential rival, Ms Harris, saying: “We cannot have a Marxist communist president.” – Guardian