Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has asked for military aircraft and vehicles to transport him around the country in the final weeks of the presidential campaign because of an ongoing assassination threat against him from Iran.
President Biden said Friday that he has told the Department of Defense to work with the Secret Service to fulfill the request.
“As long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s. I’ve told the department to give him every single thing he needs,” the president told reporters at the White House.
In addition to the military aircraft and vehicles, Mr. Trump’s campaign has requested flight restrictions over his residences and rallies to be expanded, which was first reported by The New York Times.
The campaign also wants ballistic glass — which has been used at Mr. Trump’s outdoor rallies since the July 13 assassination attempt on him at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania — to be readily available in the seven presidential swing states for the campaign’s use.
Mr. Biden had previously ordered the Secret Service to enhance Mr. Trump’s proactive assets after the Butler shooting, the first of two assassination attempts against Mr. Trump.
“If it fits into that category, that’s fine,” the president said of the new request for military assets.
The FBI is investigating the Butler shooting, in which Mr. Trump was grazed by a bullet that came within inches of killing him, as well as a man charged with trying to shoot Mr. Trump at his golf club in Florida last month. However, the agency has not found any evidence that either man had co-conspirators or was connected to any Iranian plot.
Still, the assassination attempts underscored concerns about Mr. Trump’s security should Iran send professional killers.
Mr. Trump is receiving “the highest levels of protection,” Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service’s communications chief, said in a statement, echoing rhetoric used in recent weeks by Ronald Rowe, Secret Service acting director. That includes the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, counter unmanned aerial surveillance systems, ballistics and other advanced technology systems, he said.
“The Secret Service will remain vigilant and continue to adjust and enhance its protective posture as needed to mitigate evolving threats,” Mr. Guglielmi said.
He said the agency already relies on regular assistance from the Defense Department to protect Mr. Trump, including “explosive ordnance disposal, canine units and airlift transportation,” and has approved temporary flight restrictions over the president’s home and travel sites.
Iran has long expressed a desire to retaliate against Mr. Trump for ordering in 2020 the U.S. airstrike that killed Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian military’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
U.S. intelligence officials reportedly warned the Secret Service about a heightened threat from Iran in the weeks leading up to the rally, but that intelligence was not shared with the vast majority of agents in charge of planning security for the Butler rally, interviews Senate investigators conducted revealed.
On July 12, a day before the rally, the FBI arrested Asif Merchant, a Pakistan national with ties to Iran, who was involved in a murder-for-hire plot targeting U.S. government officials, including Mr. Trump, according to the bureau.
Last month, intelligence officials briefed Mr. Trump on “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him,” coordinated plots that have “heightened in the past few months,” according to campaign spokesman Steven Cheung.
The New York Times cited exchanges Mr. Trump’s top campaign adviser, Susie Wiles, has had with White House chief of staff Jeff Zients and Mr. Rowe in the past two weeks. She reportedly expressed frustration that the campaign had been forced to cancel or adjust locations for key events because of limits on available protective resources.
That included an event the campaign wanted to hold in Wisconsin while the Secret Service was short-staffed due to agents securing the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
A second event in Wisconsin had to be moved to a smaller venue after the Secret Service determined the original venue could not safely hold the ballistic glass used to protect Mr. Trump from gunfire. The campaign reportedly had to refashion the event into a news briefing rather than a public rally.
The newspaper’s account seems to confirm a whistleblower report Sen. Josh Hawley’s office received last month about the Secret Service having to effectively cancel an event in Wisconsin.
Ms. Wiles reportedly told the White House and Secret Service leaders that more security assets would be needed if the former president were to be able to finish the campaign season with the rigorous schedule he wants, which prompted the request for military aircraft and vehicles.
The Washington Post, which also reported on the request, said Trump advisers are concerned that Iran could deploy drones and missiles. Mr. Trump has already started traveling in nondescript planes without his name on the side, as is plastered across his Boeing 757, and using a divided motorcade to reduce unwanted attention, the outlet reported.
The lead site agent for the July 13 Butler rally, who was sent from the Trump detail to help the Pittsburgh field office with advance planning, told the Senate investigators that she had not been briefed on any threats leading up to July 13. But last year, she said she received verbal and email communication about a “possible drone attack.”
That was among the reasons the site agent had a “gut feeling” about the Butler location.
“It shocked me, like just being out there,” she said. “They’re planning to have a protectee with 15[000]-20,000 people in an outdoor event when there’s an active threat for the drone attack.”
An agent from Mr. Trump’s detail assigned to conduct the counter drone planning and operation was aware of the long-standing Iranian threats but told Senate investigators he had never been informed of any drone-related threats.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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