Earlier today a man opened fire at a golf resort in Doral, Florida belonging to President Trump. The man had been yelling anti-Trump rhetoric before he fired a gun into the air.
The suspect is a 42 year old Florida man, and he’s in stable condition after police shot him in what’s reported as an “exchange of gunfire.” A Doral police officer suffered broken bones, but wasn’t shot during the event.
According to reports of the event by Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez, the suspect first took a flag down from a pole near the back of the resort. Then he brought the flag into the hotel’s lobby, placed it over a count, and started yelling about President Trump.
Then he fired a gun into the air, and stood there waiting for the cops to come and get him.
Perez said the suspect’s immediate motive seemed to be baiting the cops into a gunfight.
“He did succeed” at luring in the police, said Perez, “and he did lose.”
Police officers shot the man multiple times in the lower regions of his body and he was taken into custody. It now seems he’ll survive the episode.
The President’s son Eric sent a tweet thanking the officers of Doral and Miami-Dade county. “A huge thank you to the incredible men and women of the @DoralPolice Department and @MiamiDadePD. Every day they keep our community safe. We are very grateful to you!”
It is reported that the FBI, Secret Service, and local police will all be investigating the shooting. Nobody under secret service protection was in Miami at the time of the shooting, but it still represents a serious threat to the safety of the president.
Issues like this one are the reason why Trump’s security costs as president have been so much higher than many before him. His profile as an individual and as a businessman is much higher than the average president.
He owns so many properties and has been involved in so many ventures that his exposure to attacks like this is very high. Especially because he enjoys taking time off to golf at his many resorts (especially Mar-a-Lago). Although the president wasn’t there at the resort in Doral today, he could have been.
And anyone seeking to do him harm could target his many businesses, resorts, and hotels. We’ve already seen Trump properties being vandalized or protested against. Now some nutjob has broken into one and started spraying bullets into the chandeliers.
Donald Trump knew he would be exposing himself and his businesses to real risk by taking on the role of president. Most businessmen with such public-facing ventures as real-estate probably wouldn’t want to take on such a controversial position. And if they did, they probably wouldn’t take the kind of real stances that the President has taken on the issues.
But Donald Trump is not most businessmen. Even in the face of losing customers, or of having properties vandalized or shot-up, Trump is standing firm for what he believes is best for America. Whether you personally agree with his politics or not, you gotta admit that takes guts. And it’s not something most scaredy-cat business owners would do.