Police in Florida arrested a man who allegedly climbed a fence and tried to enter President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club early Tuesday, the Secret Service said.
The alleged intruder — described only as an adult male — “scaled a perimeter fence and triggered alarms” shortly after midnight on Tuesday, a Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. He was detained by the Secret Service “without incident” before local police in Palm Beach took him into custody and charged him with trespassing, according to the spokesperson.
The arrested man allegedly told local police he hoped to speak with Mr. Trump about “the gospel” and wanted to marry his 18-year-old granddaughter, according to an arrest report obtained by the Palm Beach Daily News. CBS News has reached out to the Palm Beach Police Department.
Mr. Trump was in Washington during the incident. “No Secret Service protectees were present at the time of this incident,” according to the agency.
It’s not the first time that Mar-a-Lago has faced security incidents. A man allegedly tried to enter the property repeatedly last year, both before and after the election, and two different people were arrested for trespassing during Mr. Trump’s first term in 2019.
And Ryan Routh was charged last year with trying to kill Mr. Trump at his golf club in West Palm Beach, a few miles from Mar-a-Lago. Authorities say Routh — who has pleaded not guilty — aimed a rifle through the bushes at the edge of the property, but fled after he was spotted by the Secret Service. That was the second attempt on Mr. Trump’s life last year.
