The Secret Service of the United States dismantled an operation of an individual that could have ended in a new attack against the former president of the United States and current presidential candidate for the Republican Party, Donald Trump. This was reported to the media by the Secret Service and the FBI.

According to the version circulated in the media, a person hid in the bushes of the golf course, where Trump was playing. A group of Secret Service agents, as usual, began a search of the surroundings and noticed the presence of a person with a rifle in the bushes of the golf course, in a position through which the candidate should later pass.

That's why authorities are talking about a new Trump assassination attempt.

At that moment they opened fire on the stranger, who fled the golf course and was captured moments later when he was fleeing in his private vehicle. 

Rafael Barros, Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Field Office, was in charge of giving the official version on behalf of the Secret Service. " Former President Donald Trump is safe and unharmed following a possible attempted assassination shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday at Trump International Golf Club at West Palm Beach. U.S. Secret Service personnel opened fire on a gunman located near the property line. The FBI has assumed its role as the lead agency investigating this matter."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) immediately informed through its official channels that "the FBI has gone to West Palm Beach (Florida) and is investigating what appears to be an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump".

The man behind the thwarted attack

Authorities have given the name of the person who was arrested as the possible perpetrator of the attack. He is Ryan Wesley Routh, a 58-year-old North Carolina native.

After being shot by Secret Service agents, Routh fled in his vehicle, but was intercepted in his escape. Upon searching his hiding place, officers found two backpacks, a GoPro camera and an AK47 rifle.

The BBC verified Routh's information on social networks and confirmed that he is a person who supports Ukraine and has made arrangements to bring fighters to that territory now in conflict. The New York Times, for its part, reported that Routh had served as a source for an article on volunteers for the Ukrainian war in 2023. "The suspect had said he was willing to fight and die in Ukraine," the paper noted.

Authorities continue to probe Routh's actions and whether he was a lone gunman.