The U.S. Secret Service has acknowledged a security breach after a member of the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, carried a loaded semiautomatic handgun into the facility while President Donald Trump was on-site.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the U.S. Secret Service said the weapon—identified as a Glock—was not detected during a manual bag search conducted with handheld magnetometers on August 31.
Newsweek contacted Trump National Golf Club for comment via email outside normal working hours on Thursday.
Why It Matters
Although the club member who carried the loaded handgun into Trump National Golf Club last month self-reported the weapon and never came near the president, the lapse underscores persistent concerns about the Secret Service’s ability to safeguard the president.
Along with the assassination of Charlie Kirk—the conservative activist and prominent Trump ally who was fatally shot on Wednesday at a public event in Utah—the Trump National Golf Club incident highlights growing vulnerabilities in how security is managed, raises deeper questions about various security agency’s operational readiness in a climate of political violence and threatens public confidence in these agencies’ protective missions.
What To Know
The Secret Service has launched an internal review into the screening failure on August 31, and the employee responsible for searching the guest’s bag has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of that review, the agency said.
