Trump won't golf until after the election

No fly zone Former President Donald Trump has not been golfing since an apparent assassination attempt near one of his golf courses on Sept. 15 and will not again until the election, per a person involved in the campaign and another with direct knowledge of the matter. 

A third person who is privy to the discussions said Trump was informed that federal agents could not guarantee his security to a level that made them feel comfortable in case he chose to. The concerns were conveyed in two conversations with Trump since the September incident: The first of these was held with Ronald Rowe – the acting director of the Secret Service – and the second one was held with the representatives from the office of the national intelligence director. 

Indeed, the safety issue had been brewing in Trump’s mind.

Last month, Trump asked Rowe whether it would be safe for him to continue playing golf in view of the failed assassination bid, whether he’d need protection and was informed that he would require considerably more security than he at that moment, The New York Times reported last month citing three people it said were privy to the conversation. 

This loss of golf playing ability is a big interference in Trump’s daily/weekly regimen on schedule. He owns eighteen golf courses all over the globe, including Oman and Dubai, and golf has always been part of his life in his three campaigns and his presidency More that two sixty- days he spends in his golf related properties during his presidency. It is therefore was not clear whether he golfed each time – a marked contrast from his predecessors that his White House would often announce whether he was golfing or not and if he was with whom. 

If Trump has not golfed at all till Election Day, it will be the most extended period that he has not played since the pandemic that saw him put the clubs aside for over two months. 

More often, Trump plays golf at least once a week since leaving office but his love for the game put him in harms way on Sept. 15 while golfing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

This is when, according to the Justice Department, a Secret Service agent noticed ‘the partially obscured face of a man’ ‘in the brush along the fence line near the sixth hole’ apparently waiting for Trump to get to the hole. Police subsequently named the man as Ryan Routh; he escaped from the scene after the agent shot at him and was apprehended shortly afterwards. 

Routh’s charges are attempted assassination of a leading presidential candidate and he could be imprisoned for life if found guilty. He has pleaded not guilty.

The event that took place in West Palm Beach was the second try to murder Trump. In July, he was shot on the ear when Thomas Crooks shot at him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

Since those past cases, the Secret Service heightened protection of Trump and Kamala Harris to an extent that has never been seen before. Campaign security has become more secretive and now simply hiring additional police to protect the candidate is no longer enough; it has to be bullet proof glasses. 

When asked to comment on the matter or give an explanation for the firing, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the Service will not discuss “conversations between the Acting Director and a protectee” then referred all questions to Trump’s campaign. 

“Since the July 13 shooting attempt on the former President Trump, USSS has made extensive modify and improvements to our communications system, resources, and protective measures,” he said during the statement to NBC News. “Today, the former President is receiving heightened protection and we take the responsibility to guarantee his security very seriously.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for a comment to this article. 

Trump has mentioned that he likes golfing and that is his only exercise. 

I do know many in business and business politics that exercise with the best of intentions, to the point of exhaustion. It remains their greatest love in life and still you do not hear anyone gripe about it. As of my ‘exercise’ I have playing, possibly once a month if not less, a round of golf,” President Trump in 2020, himself. Very fast indeed, I get a lot of things accomplished out in the golf course and I do get some tiny exercises. Not bad!”

Though Trump often took a tour to his golf courses while he was the president, he had harassed then-President Barack Obama for playing golf as a candidate. 

Then he said, “I will have no time to golf since I am planning to work for you.” As Trump said during a rally in Virginia in August this year, let me tell you.

He said last year that his experience on the course was unique from his predecessor and this is because Obama plays much longer rounds.