Hunting stand found near Palm Beach Airport had a line of sight where President Trump boards and departs from

 

The hunting stand found near the airport. NBC News/Secret Service photo.

A hunting stand near Palm Beach International Airport had a line of sight where President Trump boards and departs from Air Force One, raising major security concerns. NBC News. The stand was found across the street where private planes, along with Air Force One, taxi and unload. Air Force One doesn't always park there but was doing so during construction. The stand had been there for a considerable time and there was no one present when the stand was discovered during a routine security check before President Trump arrived there on Friday to visit Mar-A-Lago. President Trump faced multiple assassination attempts and the incident comes after the assassination of Charlie Kirk last month. 

My Comment:

Given the location of this stand, there is approximately zero chance of this being a legitimate hunting stand. If the images I am seeing of the location of this stand is correct, it's next to an Army Reserve center and north of a government research lab. It's a small stand of trees in an otherwise extremely urban area, and I doubt there are any deer to hunt there. It did appear to have a clear line of sight to Palm Beach International. I really can't think of any other reason for this stand to be up in this tree outside of something disturbing. I mean, maybe someone wanted to watch planes taking off and landing, but there is a public park across the canal and street that would serve that purpose fine. This wasn't a plane watcher. 

This stand was about 200 yards, give or take, from where Trump would have been exiting Air Force One. That's not a difficult shot for someone with a scoped rifle, and even with iron sights it would have been doable. Anyone with even moderate training and/or range time could have made a shot at the President if this has not been discovered. 

And it's not like this is a spur of the moment thing. You don't put a tree stand in this area for any benign reason. This is something that takes a bit of effort to set up. I'm not a hunter so I have never used a tree stand, but it does take some time put into place and it's more effort that someone is likely to make. This was someone working with some kind of plan.

The real question is why the plan wasn't put into motion? From what I understand Trump hasn't been to Mar-A-Lago that much this year, at least compared to his first term, and he usually doesn't visit it during the summer. And until very recently, construction was in place that meant that this tarmac wasn't being used. The reason this stand was discovered is because they were starting to use the tarmac again. I am guessing that whoever set up the stand abandoned it after it was clear that Trump wasn't going to be a viable target from the perch for months.

It is a relief that the Secret Service was able to find this. The threat to Trump was real and unlike the Butler assassination attempt, they crossed their "t's". They had missed an obvious sniper perch during the Butler speech, but this time they managed to catch it. Perhaps cleaning house had a positive effect?

Now we have a manhunt on our hands. Whoever made this perch probably has an active plan to attack President Trump and it needs to be stopped as soon as possible. Given the obvious competence in picking the spot, I do worry that this guy is pretty smart and if he isn't caught soon, he might try an attack. Hopefully there is some kind of evidence from the site that can be used to track this person down. Given that the stand was there I am guessing they should have at least some evidence there. 

What really concerns me is that he knows he is burned and will attempt an attack. Perhaps not on President Trump, given his location was burned and the plan appeared to have been abandoned months ago. But I am concerned that he could target someone with considerably less protection than Trump, like a local politician or media figure that lives in the Miami area. I am hoping that this person is caught very quickly before they can put any further plans into place...