President Donald Trump rapidly boarded Air Force One using a smaller staircase on Sunday due to “increased security measures” at Palm Beach International Airport, a White House official told Fox News.
The enhanced precautions were implemented after the Secret Service discovered a suspected hunting stand on Friday near the airport that had a clear line of sight to the presidential aircraft during Trump’s arrivals and departures.
Fox News was the first to report the discovery of the possible sniper position. No arrests have been made in connection with the incident. FBI Director Kash Patel said an investigation was already underway, adding that the position had yet to be attributed to anyone.
“Prior to the President’s return to West Palm Beach, USSS discovered what appeared to be an elevated hunting stand within sight line of the Air Force One landing zone,” Patel told Fox News Digital.
“No individuals were located at the scene. The FBI has since taken the investigatory lead, flying in resources to collect all evidence from the scene, and deploying our cell phone analytics capabilities,” he added.
USSS Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi confirmed to Fox that the agency is “working closely” with the FBI and local law enforcement in Palm Beach County.
He added that agents discovered the alleged hunting stand during their “advance security preparations” prior to Trump’s arrival in Palm Beach.
“There was no impact to any movements, and no individuals were present or involved at the location,” Guglielmi told Fox. “While we are not able to provide details about the specific items or their intent, this incident underscores the importance of our layered security measures,” he added.
The investigation comes just weeks after Ryan Routh was convicted of attempting to assassinate then-former President Trump on a Palm Beach golf course. Prosecutors said Routh had set up a sniper’s nest in bushes along a fence line overlooking the course before being apprehended by Secret Service agents.
Chilling videos surfaced late last month showing attempted Trump assassin Thomas Crooks dry-firing a handgun in a tactical stance inside his bedroom, according to footage shared online.
The undated clips, reportedly posted online by Crooks before being scrubbed from the internet, were obtained by conservative commentator Candace Owens and played on her podcast on Wednesday.
Crooks, 20, opened fire on Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, nearly killing the then–Republican presidential nominee before being fatally shot in the head by law enforcement, The New York Post reported.
One video shows Crooks recording a handgun lying across a quilt on his neatly made bed. He flips the camera to reveal himself—thin, pale, and dressed in athletic wear—in a sparsely decorated room with a Marvel superheroes poster on the wall. Crooks then picks up the gun, assumes a tactical stance, and dry-fires at an unseen target off-camera.
In a second clip, Crooks stands motionless before what appears to be a sheet of target paper marked with blue circles. Holding the same handgun, he again takes aim in a practiced stance, his demeanor even more chilling than before.
Owens said the videos reveal a disturbing glimpse into Crooks’ obsession with guns and assassinations, a fixation investigators say extended far beyond his own bedroom.
According to the FBI, Crooks’ laptop showed a July 6, 2024 search for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?”—just one week before he attempted to assassinate Trump.
His internet history also reportedly included searches for “Deadliest Mass Shooting in World,” “Pulse nightclub police body camera,” “Fertilizer bomb,” and “How to make a Molotov cocktail.” Owens said her team corroborated those details with FBI records.
Despite the online trail, former FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress that Crooks was not flagged by federal law enforcement prior to the assassination attempt.