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Former President Trump lavished praise on the Secret Service agent who spotted his would-be assassin on his golf course, but commented that the first attempt on his life in Butler, PA was “a very different story.”

He made his candid remarks during a telephone interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday night, commending the agent who stopped Ryan Wesley Routh from putting a bullet in him over the weekend, “And, in this particular case, you had a very sharp agent, as good as you could find, and did a fantastic job.”

“But somebody could have missed the barrel of that rifle,” he bluntly told Hannity. “Somebody of lesser talents or somebody that was distracted could have missed or could have been shot, I mean, frankly, could have also been shot.”

“Frankly, I think the Secret Service did a great job, and they got me out of there quickly. And they then went after him [Routh], and they were lucky enough to have somebody that took the license plate, which was genius, and they nabbed him on the highway. But it was… it was another day,” he asserted. “It was very interesting. I want to get… we want to get to business. We want to get to the business of running the country.”

(Video Credit: Fox News)

Trump noted that the situation at his golf club in West Palm Beach, FL “worked out very well.” That wasn’t the case in Butler where Thomas Matthew Crooks grazed the former president’s ear with a bullet that came within a fraction of blowing his head off. Crooks killed a retired fireman and wounded two others as well before getting taken out by the Secret Service.

“Now, Butler’s a very different story,” Trump pointed out. “Somebody should have been on that building. And that’s a different story. But they also showed great … they were very brave, because, when those bullets were flying, they were … they were … trying to protect me.”

After the first assassination attempt, Trump praised the Secret Service agents in his detail for doing a “fantastic job” protecting him as multiple shots rang out. But the agency’s failure that day to secure a rooftop nearby was a catastrophic mistake that some see as intentional. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was dragged in front of Congress over it and eventually resigned in late July.

“The latest assassination threat occurred Sunday when Secret Service agents spotted a man allegedly poking his rifle through the golf course’s perimeter. The agent opened fire toward the alleged perpetrator, who dropped his firearm and fled before firing shots of his own,” The Hill reported. “Authorities found two bags, a loaded rifle with a scope, and other items at the scene.”

“Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was later apprehended and charged Tuesday with two federal gun crimes related to unlawful possession of a weapon as a convicted felon and using a firearm with obliterated serial numbers,” the media outlet added.

“A federal investigation into the incident is ongoing, and more charges could be brought. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also revealed Tuesday that the state is launching its own criminal probe into the apparent assassination attempt,” The Hill continued.

Trump also commented that “his security detail had ‘long requested’ more manpower leading up to the assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pa., in July, and said if there’s a “weakness” in efforts to keep him safe, it’s the need for more personnel,” according to Fox News.

“We have long requested more people — more men and women — but more people. And because, you know, we have rallies [of] 50–60,000 [people]. In New Jersey, we had 107,000 people show up. There’s never been anything like it, and we have long requested more people. That’s true. That’s the weakness. If there’s a weakness, I really think that’s the weakness,” he noted.

“We have tremendous rallies and crowds, and that’s a good thing, but you need more protection. And we’ve long requested more people. We have — I will say in Butler — we wanted more people. I heard them say it, you know, we need more people here for security, and we never seem to get that, and I think we are getting it now. Somebody told me that they will be providing more people now,” the former president stated.

The question is… why didn’t the government and the Secret Service provide more protection previously when it was requested? One wonders if a compromised Secret Service will be sufficient to protect Trump and if he will be forced to hire former military instead to ensure his safety.

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