(AFP) – An armed man was arrested at President Donald Trump’s golf course in Los Angeles two days before the US leader’s visit on Tuesday, the local sheriff’s office said. The suspect, identified as 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele from nearby Downey, California, was arrested on Sunday afternoon at the golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes.
Plainclothes federal agents spotted him “walking throughout the golf course grounds taking photographs and videos and appearing to monitor security-planning activities,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. Trump arrived by helicopter at the golf club Tuesday evening to attend a fundraising dinner hosted by the Republican National Committee.
During the suspect’s detention, deputies recovered a 16-round magazine containing hollow-point ammunition from the suspect’s pants pocket, according to the statement. Deputies then searched the suspect’s vehicle and recovered a loaded pistol, along with an additional loaded magazine containing hollow-point ammunition.
Investigators from the sheriff’s department and the FBI’s counterterrorism unit later searched Taele’s home, where they found an assault-style rifle, a pistol, a bulletproof vest, high-capacity magazines, ammunition, two radios, and “multiple notebooks containing concerning statements.” The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether to file charges after investigators presented the case on Tuesday morning.
Trump has been the target of multiple assassination attempts since launching his most recent presidential campaign. In July 2024, Trump was targeted during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A gunman killed an audience member and lightly wounded the then-candidate in the ear. A few months later, another armed man was arrested on a West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing a round.
In April, Trump was evacuated from a reception in Washington after an armed man attempted to enter the venue, triggering a shootout with security personnel. Trump’s visit to his California golf club on Tuesday is closed to the press. The president is expected to tout his record and raise campaign funds for the upcoming midterm elections, in which his Republican party is trying to maintain its grip on the US Congress.
Trump’s visits to California, a Democratic stronghold he has long cast as the antithesis of his vision for America, are rare. Hours before Trump’s arrival, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat widely expected to run for president in 2028, urged Trump to release long-delayed federal reconstruction funding for communities devastated by the Los Angeles wildfires, saying the issue should transcend politics and that Trump should honor his pledge to help affected families.
© 2024 AFP
