Trump describes moment he heard '4 or 5 shots' after 'gunman' Ryan Routh 'lay in wait for 12hrs – but DIDN'T open fire'

09/17/2024 03:50 AM

DONALD Trump has described the moment he heard 'four or five shots' during an apparent assassination attempt while he was playing golf.

The former President, 78, was rushed to safety by Secret Service agents who spotted the gunman with a AK-47 hiding in bushes in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Speaking at an X social media event, Trump recalled the moment he heard the shots.

He said: “I was playing golf with some of my friends on a Sunday morning and very peaceful, very beautiful weather… 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.

“The Secret Service knew immediately it was bullets, and they grabbed me… everybody just got into the [golf] carts, and we moved along.”

The former President seemingly unfazed about the incident, praised the Secret Service for an “excellent job” but said he wished he could have finished his golf game.

It comes as…

• Trump was rushed to safety after the assassination attempt at his golf course
• The alleged gunman was named as pro-Ukrainian activist Ryan Wesley Routh
• Routh was pictured smirking after he was arrested
• He was hit with two federal gun charges
• Routh hated Trump but the attack was ‘nothing like him,’ his son said
• Routh wrote a bizarre $2 book about the ‘end of humanity’
• The Secret Service is under fire over the second attempt on Trump’s life in weeks
• President Biden said the Secret Service ‘needs help’
• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the state will conduct an investigation into the attempt

He added: “There was no question that we were off that course.

“I would have loved to have sank that last putt, but we decided, [to] get out of [there].”

The gunman appeared in court on Monday as it was revealed he was lurking in the area outside the golf course for 12 hours but didn’t open fire.

Secret Service director Ronald Rowe, that at the time Trump who was moving through the fifth fairway “was not in his line of sight at the time.”

He added that Trump was playing golf during an "off-the-record movement" that was not on his public schedule.

Routh was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

If found guilty, he faces up to 15 years in prison for the first charge and a further five years for the second charge.

A bond hearing has been scheduled for September 23, and a probable cause hearing has been set for September 30, depending on whether the government secures an indictment on the charges.

He was within 500 yards of Trump when he was spotted and fled the scene in an SUV before being captured by police.

Pictures show Routh smirking following his arrest, as cops described him as “calm and emotionless” during his detainment on Sunday.

Cops detained him with an AK-47 type assault rifle weapon and scope, two backpacks, and a GoPro device, according to Palm Beach County sheriff Ric Bradshaw.

It appears that Routh lived in North Carolina most of his life before moving to Hawaii in 2018.

He is believed to have tried to enlist in the Ukrainian army to fight in the war with Russia but was rejected.

The would-be assassin also wrote a bizarre $2 book which he self-published, in which he ranted about “the end of humanity” and blasted former President Trump as “brainless.”