An update on the second apparent Trump assassination attempt

Federal prosecutors have filed a pair of gun charges against a 58-year-old man accused of trying to assassinate former President Trump on Sunday, as more details about the incident continue to emerge.

Here’s what we know so far:

The incident: While Trump was playing golf on Sunday afternoon, Secret Service spotted a rifle barrel sticking out of a fence located 300-500 yards from Trump’s location, at which point agents fired at least four shots toward the gunman, causing him to flee (he was later captured).

• Authorities recovered an "AK-47 style rifle with a scope," two backpacks containing ceramic tile – potentially for body armor – and a GoPro camera from the bushes where the gunman was hiding (all pictured above☝️).
• Cellphone records show the 58-year-old suspected gunman had been hiding near Trump’s Florida golf course for ~12 hours prior to being identified by Secret Service.

The suspected gunman: Based on his past social media presence, public records, and news interviews, the 58-year-old suspect has emerged as a man with a criminal past and views across the political spectrum.

• He appears to have voted for Trump in 2016, but became a vocal critic of the former president in recent years, donating exclusively to Democratic candidates and causes since 2019. North Carolina voting records list the suspect as unaffiliated with any party, though he did vote in this year’s Democratic primary election.
• The 58-year-old suspect has also been a strong public advocate for Ukraine in its war against Russia, and reportedly attempted to recruit conscripts from Afghanistan to fight on the front lines (as he described in a 2023 NY Times interview). Ukrainian officials say he never served in the Ukrainian army or worked with its military. A Ukrainian military official also told the AP the suspect periodically contacted the country’s foreign legion with what the official said were “nonsensical ideas” that “can best be described as delusional.”

Leaders of both political parties strongly condemned the shooting. Top Democratic and Republican lawmakers – including President Biden, VP Harris, and Trump’s running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) – all denounced political violence and urged the country to promote unity following the incident.

👀 Looking ahead… Trump hasn’t announced any upcoming changes to his schedule following Sunday’s incident. More broadly, federal officials will continue to investigate the apparent assassination attempt alongside Florida law enforcement, which has launched a separate probe.