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Slowly we are getting a better picture of the events at Donald Trump’s golf club in Palm Beach. But many questions remain unanswered. 

There are unknowns about the investigation, unknowns about how all this impacts a US election that’s less than 50 days away and unknowns about where the dangerous rhetoric leads.

On the investigation – we know now that it involves FBI agents working in multiple locations from Palm Beach to Hawaii and North Carolina, and with forensic analysis of the suspect’s electronic devices at the FBI offices in Quantico, Virginia.

It’s a multi-agency operation, led by the FBI, but with input from the local sheriff’s office, the state attorney’s office and the US Secret Service.

Their work is in the very initial stages, we were told. The firearms charges against Ryan Routh are likely to be followed by further charges soon.

It’s been revealed that he didn’t fire any shots himself when he was engaged by a Secret Service agent who was a hole ahead of Donald Trump on the course.

Despite this, it’s likely he will still be charged with attempted assassination.

His GoPro camera, two bags, and his weapon are all being forensically examined, as is his phone.

Data from that phone allowed investigators to conclude that he had been in the golf course area for 12 hours before the agent spotted him.

The Secret Service revealed that Mr Trump’s Sunday round of golf was an “off the record movement”. It was not part of his planned schedule.

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Moment Ryan Routh is arrested

Lone gunman or part of conspiracy?

This prompts the question of how Routh knew he would be there? Was it a punt by the alleged assassin?

Was he acting alone or part of a wider conspiracy? This question was raised by the sheriff: “If he’s the lone gunman, President Trump is that much safer because we have him,” he said. “But if he’s part of a conspiracy, then this whole thing really takes on a very ominous tone.”

Interviews with family in North Carolina may help investigators answer this key question as will analysis of his various communications devices – both active and dormant ones.

His previous convictions and his obsessive interest in the Ukraine War and China-Taiwan tensions hint at a complex character profile.

Law enforcement officials work outside of the Trump International Golf Club after the apparent assassination attempt of Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
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Law enforcement officials outside the Trump International Golf Club. Pic: AP

His social media footprint is broad and suggests he voted for Trump in 2016 but then his politics shifted to the left.
He certainly seems much more politically driven than the young man who shot at Mr Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in July.

That shooting, in which a bullet brushed his ear, has been likened to an American school shooting in its modus operandi, with investigators unable to find any particular ideology motivating the gunman.

Overstretched and under-resourced

It was clear that officials wanted to press home some points in their news conference.

First – they believe their agents did a good job on Sunday. With the funding and remit they have, the operation was described by them as “textbook”.

Second – the Secret Service director said he needed more funding. He pressed Congress to understand the huge task his agents have in a threat environment he described as “hyper dynamic”. That phrase jumped out at me.

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Secret Service ‘needs more help’

Also striking was the praise the Secret Service director heaped on Biden’s secretary of homeland security, Alejandro Mayorkas, a man so often vilified by Donald Trump and his surrogates.

On that point, it’s notable that the investigation is being led by the FBI, an agency Mr Trump has so often said is part of the deep state. Yet he has expressed confidence and gratitude in all the agencies after Sunday.

Read more:
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Biden says Secret Service needs more help
Question of how second assassination attempt may affect election is urgent

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Trump describes gunman incident

It was striking there was not more on whether he was acting alone or not. My sense is that they think he was. But they still need to comb his background to be sure.

It was interesting that they said he tried to “recruit Afghan soldiers to fight for Ukraine”.

One line of inquiry is likely to focus on the extent to which his desire to see Ukraine win its war aligns with a belief that Donald Trump would capitulate to Russia over Ukraine.

They will want to examine any possibility that he recruited accomplices to help in eliminating Mr Trump as part of his pro-Ukraine fight.

Another big unknown is the politics; the extent to which this incident fuels Mr Trump’s support.

The last assassination attempt propelled him into his party convention with a boost in the polls. It was only upended by the replacement of his opponent Joe Biden with Kamala Harris.

My sense here is that it will not have a huge impact this time. But we’ll see.

Close to a dangerous tipping point

The singular biggest challenge now is keeping the former president and his opponent, the vice-president, safe.

Mr Trump’s language for many years has been deeply divisive.

Just this past week, baseless claims about pet-eating Haitian migrants in Springfield have led to violent threats, far-right marches and bomb scares in the small Ohio town.

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Now Mr Trump is blaming the Democrats – and their assertion he is a threat to democracy – for the attacks against him.

On social media he wrote: “Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!”

The Democrats see their “threat to democracy” warning as an accurate and justified political attack against a candidate who incited the storming of the Capitol on 6 January 2021 and who refused to concede the 2020 election.

Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, sees it differently.

“If you tell the American people that this person is the end of democracy… some crazy person is going to take matters into their own hands,” he said on Monday night.

He continued: “You know the big difference between conservatives and liberals? No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in last couple of months. And two people have tried to kill Donald Trump last couple months. That’s pretty strong evidence the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and cut this crap out.”

It feels like we are close to a dangerous tipping point. These are tense times in America.

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Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet – and that he and Barack Obama ‘probably’ like each other

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Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet - and that he and Barack Obama 'probably' like each other

Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.

Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.

“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.

Ukraine war latest updates

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.

“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.

“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”

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Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in July 2017. Pic: AP
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Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in July 2017. Pic: AP

Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’

Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.

The pair sat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.

Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.

Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.

“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.

“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”

The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.

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Insults continued for years, with Mr Obama famously dedicating much of his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech in 2016 to jokes at his political rival’s expense.

Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.

On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”

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LA wildfires: One daughter’s haunting account of her father’s fatal decision to stay in his home

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LA wildfires: One daughter's haunting account of her father's fatal decision to stay in his home

“He was asleep in his bed, where he still is right now, as I wait on the coroner.”

The haunting words of Kimiko Nickerson stopped us in our tracks.

Her father Rodney, 82, was sure the fire wouldn’t reach his home in Altadena. He was wrong.

The inferno cut through this quiet suburb north of Los Angeles at an alarming rate, its path unpredictable.

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She said: “He just didn’t want to evacuate. He’s been living here since 1968, and he’s been in Altadena my whole life.

“Like all of us on this block, in four blocks, he didn’t think it was going to be this devastating.

“It jumped whole streets, and it hit this community, but it didn’t touch the mountainside at all.”

They’re still trying to process the apocalyptic scenes here and grieving for those who did not get out.

Kimiko said: “I have no words to explain my feelings at this point in time.

“I’m just silent and numb and just mentally trying to go through the process.”

Rodney Nickerson decided not to leave his Altadena home.
Pic: Kimiko Nickerson
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Rodney Nickerson decided not to leave his Altadena home.
Pic: Kimiko Nickerson

‘Truly apocalyptic scenes’ as flames swallow homes in LA wildfires evacuation zone

It would be impossible to exaggerate the scale of the destruction, cars burnt to a cinder, palm trees still alight, powerlines strewn across roads.

So many people have lost the roof over their head but there’s one thing Kimiko says she’ll never lose – her memories.

“Every laugh, every joke he told.

“He was a smart man. He read the LA Times from cover to cover and walked around the Rose Bowl every day.

“He was healthy, he was ambitious… but he went to sleep and died in his bed back there.”

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Donald Trump to be sentenced today over porn star hush money after Supreme Court rejects appeal

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Donald Trump to be sentenced today over porn star hush money after Supreme Court rejects appeal

The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.

The president-elect was convicted on 34 counts last May in New York of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.

Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.

Mr Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.

By a majority, the Supreme Court found his sentencing would not be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since the presiding judge, Juan M Merchan, has indicated he will not give Mr Trump jail time, fines or probation.

Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Mr Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.

At the least, they said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Mr Trump during the presidential transition.

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Stormy Daniels. Pic: AP
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Stormy Daniels. Pic: AP

Mr Trump’s attorneys went to the justices after New York courts refused to postpone sentencing.

Judges in New York found that the convictions related to personal matters rather than Mr Trump’s official acts as president.

Mr Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and they said sentencing him now would be a “grave injustice” that threatens to disrupt the presidential transition as the Republican prepares to return to the White House.

Mr Trump has said he will appeal again: “I respect the court’s opinion – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said, but they invited the appeal and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it works out,” he said at a dinner with Republican governors at his private club in Florida.

Because the New York case was a state, rather than federal crime, Mr Trump will not be able to pardon himself when he takes office on 20 January.

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