US President Donald Trump checks his phone as he departs from Trump National golf course in Sterling, Virginia on August 31, 2025, en route to the White House.
Andrew Caballero-reynolds | Afp | Getty Images
The U.S. Secret Service during a security screening missed finding a gun carried by a member of President Donald Trump’s golf club in northern Virginia while Trump was there, the agency confirmed Wednesday.
The member self-reported shortly afterward that he inadvertently carried the gun to Trump National Washington, D.C., in Sterling on Aug. 31, according to a senior Secret Service official.
The incident occurred about a year after two assassination attempts on Trump, the most recent of which occurred while he was playing at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“The U.S. Secret Service takes the safety and security of our sites very seriously and there are redundant security layers built into every one,” the agency said Wednesday,
The agency said that an internal review began after the club member reported the gun last month.
“Video surveillance indicates the club member was never in close physical proximity to the President’s location at any point while at the golf club,” the Secret Service said.
The Secret Service employee involved in screening the member who had the gun with hand-held magnetometers “was immediately removed from operational duties and has since been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the review,” the agency said.
Secret Service Director Sean Curran and Deputy Director Matt Quinn visited the club after the incident and received a detailed briefing, according to the senior agency official.
Real Clear Politics first reported the incident, saying that the club member had a Glock semiautomatic pistol in his bag that was missed by the screener.
That man was “shaken and incensed” after realizing the Secret Service had failed to detect the firearm, Real Clear Politics reported.
Trump narrowly avoided being killed by a gunman at a presidential campaign rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned nine days later amid widespread criticism of her agency’s failure to prevent the shooting at Trump by 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who killed one man and seriously wounded two others before being killed himself by a Secret Service sniper.
On Sept. 15, 2024, a Secret Service agent fired at a North Carolina man, Ryan Routh, who was allegedly lying in wait with a rifle outside Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach while Trump was playing there.
Routh was apprehended a short distance away.
Jury selection at Routh’s trial in that case began Monday in U.S. District Court in Fort Pierce, Florida.
He is charged with attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate and assaulting a federal officer, as well as with firearm violations.
