Trump may only be alive due to the shooter's bad wind estimate, former Navy SEAL says
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
- Erik Prince, an ex-Navy SEAL, said the 5mph wind was enough to displace the bullet by two inches.
- Donald Trump was "not saved" by the US Secret Service's "brilliance," he said.
- Prince criticized the Secret Sevice for letting a shooter within 150 meters of a pre-planned event.
Donald Trump may be alive due to the shooter's bad wind estimate, according to a former Navy SEAL officer.
In an X post on Sunday, Erik Prince joined those criticizing the Secret Service's handling of the fatal shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, saying Trump may only be alive due to a "bad wind estimate by an evil would-be assassin."
Prince pointed to a map of the rally site, which he said was from an unnamed SEAL sniper instructor at Red Sky LLC. The map shows a 5mph wind blowing westward in the bullet trajectory.
"As the graphics show, the full-value wind of just 5 mph was enough to displace the unconfirmed but likely light 55-grain bullet two inches from DJT's intended forehead to his ear," he said, using Donald John Trump's initials.
"DJT was not saved by USSS brilliance," he added.
Prince and representatives for the Secret Service didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The former President was shot in the upper part of his right ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
The gunman "fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position," according to a statement shared by Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.
The shooter, armed with an "AR-style" rifle, was only about 450 feet (roughly 137 meters) away from the former US president, satellite imagery shows.
Yasin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty Images
Videos of the shooting show the former president clutching his hand to his bloodied face and later raising his fist triumphantly while being escorted off the stage by the Secret Service.
Trump later thanked the US Secret Service and law enforcement for their "rapid" response.
But the assassination attempt raised questions about why the US Secret Service didn't spot Trump's shooter sooner, with former intelligence officers criticizing the Secret Service's procedure.
Prince, who reportedly served as a Navy SEAL from 1992 to 1996, pointed to several of the USSS' alleged shortcomings, including letting a rifle-armed shooter within 150 meters of a pre-planned event and failing to kill the shooter immediately.
"The only positive action was an apparent 488yd shot by one USSS sniper, which dispatched the assassin, but after the assassin launched at least 5 rounds, wounding DJT and killing and severely others in the crowd," he wrote on X.
In his former role as CEO of Blackwater, a security firm that played a major and controversial role in the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Prince said they were "expected to execute the basics, or we would be fired."
"Clearly, USSS failed at the basics of a secure perimeter, and once shots were fired, their extraction was clumsy and left DJT highly exposed to follow-on attacks," he said.
On Sunday, Guglielmi said claims that the agency had turned down a request from Trump's team for additional security were "absolutely false".
"In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo," Guglielmi said on X.