NEW YORK, September 24. /TASS/. The US Secret Service is tightening security for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in the wake of the latest apparent attempt on his life earlier this month, NBC quoted an agency official as saying on Tuesday.
"Given recent events, the Secret Service is taking a heightened posture in its protection of the former president," the official said, referring to Trump. It was clear that these measures had already been implemented, as after Trump’s plane landed in Pennsylvania on Monday, a Secret Service agent was seen shadowing the former president, the TV channel said.
Last week, the House of Representatives unanimously voted to increase the Secret Service’s protection of presidential candidates and vice presidents in the wake of two assassination attempts against Trump. If the bill is signed into law, it would mean that presidential candidates would be provided with the same level of protection as President Joe Biden.
On September 15, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it was probing into an incident at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, where an AK-47 rifle, a scope, two backpacks with ceramic tile and a camera were found in the tree line of the golf club where Trump was golfing at the time of the attack. The suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was recently charged.
The second assassination attempt comes a little more than two months after a 20-year-old gunman shot Trump in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attacker, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was eliminated by Secret Service agents. The FBI confirmed that the incident was investigated as an assassination attempt.