Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he’s “always worried” about safety at his rallies, blaming the White House for making it “very difficult” to ensure proper security.
Trump, 78, made the remark during an interview on NewsNation’s “CUOMO” show, as he prepares for a weekend rally in Butler, Pa. – the site of the first assassination attempt against him.
“Well, I’m always worried,” the former president said, when asked if he’s concerned about safety ahead of his highly anticipated return to Butler.
“I think that the White House isn’t treating us very good,” he added. “I get crowds that are ten times bigger than anybody else, 20 times bigger than anybody else, and we’re entitled to security.”
Calls for Trump to receive the same level of Secret Service protection as President Biden mounted after a second failed assassination attempt at the former president’s Palm Beach, Fla., golf course last month.
An eagle-eyed Secret Service agent was able to foil suspected would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh’s apparent plot to gun down Trump, but security was lighter around the golf course because the GOP nominee for president is not the sitting commander-in-chief.
The House and Senate unanimously passed legislation last month enhancing Secret Service protection for Trump – up to the same level currently provided to a sitting US president and vice president.
Biden, 81, signed the bill into law on Tuesday.
“The White House makes it very difficult,” Trump said of getting the necessary security measures in place for his massive rallies.
“We had something in Wisconsin last week, we would’ve had 60,000 people, but they couldn’t provide us with the security,” he claimed.
“It’s very unfair the way we’ve been treated,” Trump went on. “And we have to get better security. It’s really being led more so by the White House than anybody else.”
The 45th president noted that despite the two assassination attempts he believes the Secret Service “doing a good job” but appears limited – by the White House – in terms of the amount of resources they can provide.
“[T]hey’re only allowed to do what the white House is letting them do,” Trump said.
The former president said the recent congressional support to boost his level of Secret Service protection is “the first unanimous vote I can remember in Congress.”
Trump’s Oct. 5 rally is slated to take place on the same Butler Farm Show grounds where he was shot in the ear 12 weeks earlier by Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Crooks, 20, seriously wounded two rally-goers and killed a third before he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
A Senate investigation into the shooting found numerous “preventable” security failures by the Secret Service leading up to the tragedy.
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