Joe Biden says Secret Service needs more help after Trump targeted in apparent assassination attempt

US President Joe Biden has said the Secret Service needs more help after Donald Trump was targeted in an apparent assassination attempt on Sunday.

Mr Biden said he was thankful Mr Trump was “OK” before adding he did not yet have a full report of what happened.

He added: “One thing I want to make clear is that the service needs more help and I think Congress should respond to their needs.”

When asked what extra help the service needs, Mr Biden said it might need to be considered whether the service needs “more personnel or not”.

He made the remarks after the FBI said an “apparent assassination attempt” on Mr Trump was thwarted on Sunday, with a man arrested and an assault rifle recovered.

Mr Trump was playing a round at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach in Florida when gunshots were heard.

It is not yet known whether the suspect fired first, fired a round at all or if only the Secret Service fired.

Follow latest: Suspect detained after ‘running out of bushes’

The former US president was on the fifth hole when he was tackled to the ground by security agents fearing an attempt on his life.

The fifth hole in the north-eastern corner of the golf course is just over 300 metres (328 yards) from the southern perimeter fence.

The course is lined with thick foliage, but satellite images show the area between the fence and the approximate point Mr Trump had reached on the course is mostly open water and grass – with the sightline potentially blocked by some trees bordering the lake.

Agent spotted rifle barrel poking out if fence

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters that a Secret Service agent, who was patrolling the course ahead of Mr Trump, spotted a rifle barrel coming out of a perimeter fence.

“He immediately engaged that individual, at which time the individual took off,” he said.

Mr Bradshaw said Mr Trump was about 300 to 500 yards (275 to 460m) from the suspect, named as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, at the time.

Dave Aronberg, Palm Beach County’s state attorney, told MSNBC the suspect was “lying in wait” for Mr Trump.

“We are not sure right now if the individual was able to take a shot at our agents”, Rafael Barros, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Miami field office, has told a news conference.

Routh fled in a black Nissan SUV and was arrested after his vehicle was stopped by local police, Sky News’s US partner network NBC News reported, citing three senior law enforcement officials.

He was stopped by police driving northbound on the I-95 highway, about 46 miles and a 43-minute drive from the golf course.

The southern perimeter fence runs along Summit Boulevard, where a police cordon was put up and officers were seen searching the bushes bordering the golf course.

Officers later searched the area where the man, believed to be Routh, was spotted and found an AK-47-style rifle with a scope, two rucksacks and a GoPro.

Earlier, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder described how his officers followed the suspect’s vehicle for a while before making a “felony stop”.

He said: “Our road units picked the vehicle up and we waited a while. We didn’t stop him right away. We didn’t want a high-speed chase.

“So we were able to wait until we had adequate units, surrounded the vehicle, and forced it to a stop.”

He added they managed to take the suspect into custody peacefully.

Routh has since appeared in a federal courtroom in West Bank Palm Beach, Florida.

Read more:
What we know about what happened so far
Urgent question over how ‘assassination attempt’ may affect election – analysis

Afterwards, a statement from Mr Trump said: “There were gunshots in my vicinity, but before rumours start spiralling out of control, I wanted you to hear this first: I AM SAFE AND WELL!

“Nothing will slow me down. I will NEVER SURRENDER! I will always love you for supporting me.

“Unity. Peace. Make America Great Again. May God bless you.”

Mr Trump has since returned to his Mar-a-Lago resort.

A White House statement said after the incident: “The president and vice president have been briefed about the security incident at the Trump International Golf Course, where former president Trump was golfing.

“They are relieved to know that he is safe. They will be kept regularly updated by their team.”

What do we know about the suspect?

Routh is reported to have travelled to Ukraine in an attempt to help the country in its fight against Russia.

A video has emerged of an interview he gave to Newsweek in 2022 where he spoke about his efforts to recruit foreign volunteers for Ukraine’s ground forces.

It has also emerged Routh wrote a book about the conflict where he described how he “gave up and quit”, a decision he says makes him “the worst of humans”.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that public records show Routh faced criminal charges over two separate incidents in 2002 for possession of a weapon of mass destruction – which can refer to a machine gun.

He pleaded guilty to the first charge in April 2002, but no other details were publicly available, according to the newspaper.

The News & Record reported that later that year he was also charged after barricading himself in a United Roofing building in Greensboro for three hours, armed with a machine gun.

The incident began after he was pulled over for a traffic stop, but police eventually arrested him without incident.

In that case, he is said to have pleaded guilty to driving without a licence and registration, resisting a public officer and carrying a concealed firearm – while public records reportedly indicate the weapon of mass destruction charge was dropped.

According to records, Routh lived in North Carolina for most of his life before moving to Kaaawa, Hawaii, in 2018, the Associated Press reported.

In relation to the incident at Mr Trump’s golf course on Sunday, Routh’s son has told CNN that he hopes “everything has been blown out of proportion” and that it would be unlike his father to “do anything crazy, much less violent”.

Oran Routh said: “Ryan is my father, and I don’t have any comment beyond a character profile of him as a loving and caring father, and honest, hardworking man… He’s a good father, and a great man, and I hope you can portray him in an honest light.”

It comes two months after Mr Trump sustained an ear injury during an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania in July.

The gunman, who was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by the Secret Service at the scene.

The attempt on Mr Trump’s life led to the resignation of Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle, who admitted to Congress that her agency had its “most significant operational failure” in decades.