Biden orders Trump to be protected as 'sitting president'
Republican candidate Donald Trump has requested travel by US military aircraft following multiple assassination plots against him.
Former President Donald Trump's campaign has requested additional resources, including military aircraft, to protect the Republican candidate in the final weeks before the election.
US President Joe Biden has promised to provide whatever is needed, “as long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s.”
According to multiple US media sources on October 11, after two recent assassination plots targeting Mr. Trump, his campaign contacted the White House and the US Secret Service to request military means to increase protection.
President Biden said he had ordered his administration to provide Mr Trump with “anything he needs” when asked for this information.
“As long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s,” Mr. Biden told reporters, later adding that he was “just joking.”
“Look, I have directed the department to provide him with everything – everything he needs as if he were a sitting president. Provide him with everything he needs. If it fits into that category, fine. But if it doesn’t, he shouldn’t,” the US leader explained.
The request for military assets includes aircraft and vehicles to shuttle Mr. Trump between campaign events and extends flight restrictions over his properties and large gatherings. However, the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN sources did not mention whether the Republican campaign requested fighter escorts.
Mr. Trump's election opponent, Ms. Kamala Harris, as Vice President, is protected by the US Marines and travels on a US military plane, Air Force Two.
The Secret Service, the agency responsible for protecting presidential candidates, confirmed it had received a request for increased protection but did not provide details. “The former president is being protected at the highest level,” a representative of the agency said, stressing that the Secret Service will continue to adjust its protective measures as needed to respond to emerging threats.
The agency faced criticism after the first assassination attempt on Trump in July, which led to the resignation of its director. It has since stepped up its protections for Mr. Trump, including the use of drones, anti-drone technology, and other protection and surveillance systems.
Last month, Mr Trump claimed there were “significant threats” against his life from Iran after he and his team met with representatives from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The agency declined to disclose details of the meeting, although the Trump campaign said it focused on “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him and to destabilize and create chaos in the United States”.
Mr. Trump was assassinated on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, after a 20-year-old man fired a gun from a rooftop, grazed Mr. Trump’s ear, and killed a person in the crowd. The suspect, Thomas M. Crooks, was killed by the US Secret Service.
Another would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested by the Secret Service on September 15 after he was spotted loitering near a Trump-owned golf course in Florida, apparently trying to open fire. Routh, a convicted felon, has spent much of the past three years in Ukraine, telling numerous Western media outlets that he was fundraising and recruiting for Kiev’s war.
The FBI is investigating both incidents as attempted assassinations, but authorities have yet to provide any information about a motive and have not revealed any evidence linking them to an Iranian plot.