Former President Donald Trump in an interview on the platform X, recounted his personal experience of the second attempt to take his life a day earlier.
“It was quite something,” Trump said from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
“So I was playing golf with some of my friends, it was on a Sunday morning, very peaceful, very beautiful weather. Everything was beautiful, nice place to be, and all of a sudden, we heard shots being fired in the air, and I guess probably four or five, and it sounded like bullets,” Trump said, referencing his golf partner, Steve Witkoff.
The suspected attempted shooter, Ryan Routh, is alleged to have set up two bags, a GoPro camera, and a scoped SKS-style rifle at the perimeter of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
A Secret Service agent noticed Routh, who didn’t have a clear line of sight on the former president at the time, and opened fire at him, causing Routh to flee. Routh himself did not let off any shots before being spotted, according to authorities.
“The Secret Service knew immediately it was bullets, and they grabbed me,” Trump said.
After shots were heard, Trump and Witkoff were taken by Secret Service agents to the clubhouse.
“I would have loved to have sunk that last putt, but we decided, ‘Let’s get out of here,’” Trump said.
Trump said he was impressed with the actions of the Secret Service agent who first noticed the gunman, whose barrel was barely visible through the perimeter fence and bushes surrounding Trump International Golf Club.
“Secret Service did a great job … the sheriff’s office, law enforcement, everyone did a great job,” Trump said.
Witkoff also later recounted his experience, praising Trump’s reaction to the events as they unfolded.
“I got to see what he has to live his daily life like,” he said. “Two assassination attempts in the last two months. He’s been vilified. He ought to be commended for his four years of public service as a president,” Witkoff said.
He also praised the former president as being courageous and for asking about his friends first during the event.
The Secret Service “were incredible,” Witkoff said. “They put their lives on the line for him.”
After being spotted and fired at by the Secret Service agent, Routh fled in his vehicle.
According to Trump, a civilian thought he looked suspicious, and took photos of his vehicle and license plate, which were handed over to the authorities.
Trump credited the civilian who took a photo of Routh’s vehicle for the capture of the suspect.
“The civilian did a phenomenal job. A woman. … How many people would have the brainpower to follow him and take pictures of the back of his truck?” Trump said.
With the license plate number provided by the civilian, police were able to track and locate the vehicle. According to the criminal complaint, police arrested Routh on Interstate 95 within 48 minutes of him fleeing the golf course.
Police were able to capture him without a high-speed chase, and he was arrested without incident.
“They have the man behind bars and hopefully he’s going to be there for a long time,” Trump said of Routh.
Trump called the suspected would-be assassin a “very, very dangerous person.”
Routh is currently being held in federal custody.
He made an initial court appearance on Sept. 16 where he was charged with possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon—charges that carry up to 20 years in prison.
