The FBI is investigating a second assassination attempt against Donald Trump in just two months.
The former president was rushed to safety on Sunday after multiple shots were fired in his vicinity while he was playing golf at his club in West Palm Beach.
A suspected gunman is in custody after the terrifying incident at Trump International Club almost exactly two months after a gunman tried to take out Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump confirmed in a statement about an hour after the incident that he is ‘safe and well’ and didn’t want rumors to ‘start spiraling out of control.’
The 2024 Republican nominee’s bulked up Secret Service advance team spotted the shooter in the tree lines just two holes from where Trump was golfing.
The FBI now says two hours after the incident that the attack ‘appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.’
The armed suspect was posted up outside the club around the 5th and 6th hole, which a source familiar with the incident told DailyMail.com is a ‘vulnerable’ area of the course.
Multiple police sources have confirmed to media that a ‘high powered rifle’ was recovered at the scene and that he was pointing the weapon towards the golf course on Sunday afternoon before shots were fired at 2:00 p.m. The suspect’s car is also in police possession.
The area where the suspect was first spotted by his security detail was two holes ahead of where Trump was golfing at the time of gunshots, causing the individual to flee.
Undergrowth is cut back in this area every summer and is one of the parts of the course closest to the road.
The incident comes as Trump’s security detail has been ramped up in the two months after the former president was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.
Trump’s golf club is just five miles from his residence at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach and is where the former president is often spotted golfing when he is not on the campaign trail.
Real estate investor and New York City landlord Steve Witkoff was Trump’s golfing buddy on Sunday, sources told DailyMail.com.
The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Department is holding a press conference Sunday afternoon to provide updates on the shooting.
‘Nothing will slow me down,’ Trump wrote in a statement. ‘I will NEVER SURRENDER!’
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are aware of the shooting and ‘relieved’ he is not harmed.
‘The President and Vice President have been briefed about the security incident at the Trump International Golf Course, where former President Trump was golfing,’ according to the White House.
‘They are relieved to know that he is safe. They will be kept regularly updated by their team.’
Harris, who just met Trump for the first time in person at their debate on Tuesday, responded to the shooting with a statement sharing the platitude: ‘Violence has no place in America.’
‘I have been briefed on reports of gunshots fired near former President Trump and his property in Florida, and I am glad he is safe,’ she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
United States Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a post on X: ‘The Secret Service, in conjunction with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, is investigating a protective incident involving former President Donald Trump that occurred shortly before 2 p.m.’
‘The former president is safe,’ he assured, adding that the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office will follow up with more details about the incident.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he spoke with Trump moments after news broke.
‘He is one of the strongest people I’ve ever known,’ the senator wrote on X. ‘He’s in good spirits and he is more resolved than ever to save our country.’
It is still unclear how many people were involved in Sunday’s shooting and whether they were targeting the former president. It is also still not known if the suspect ever fired his gun or if the gunshots came from the agents who took aim at the alleged threat.
But just the report of shots near Trump raises eyebrows as multiple investigations are ongoing into the shooting in Pennsylvania earlier this summer that left two dead, including the shooter, and two critically injured.
Trump walked away from the assassination attempt with just a bloody ear that could have been a fatal shot had it been a few millimeters different and struck his head.
But would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot dead by Secret Service before he was able to get in another shot at the former president.
Initial canvassing led to authorities discovering his car near the rally site in Butler with explosives and his parent’s home with even more bombs.
Congressional and other local and federal investigations are ongoing to discover what led to the failures that allowed a shooter to get just a few hundred feet away from Trump with an AR-15 rifle.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) is on the House Task Force on the assassination attempt.
He said on Sunday that this proves the attack was not an ‘isolated incident’ and demanded the Secret Service brief the task force this week.
‘As I’ve said before, the July 13th assassination attempt was not an isolated incident that we can take our time investigating as domestic and foreign threats are ongoing,’ Waltz wrote on X.