Trump at higher risk of assassination than other former presidents thanks to ‘public enemy’ rhetoric: expert

The threat against former President Trump is unique to him and far higher than anything facing the other living former presidents as inflammatory political rhetoric has consistently portrayed him as “public enemy number one for democracy,” a security expert told Fox Digital. 

Trump has faced a pair of assassination attempts in just over two months – one on July 13 and one on Sept. 15 – with the first incident resulting in a would-be assassin injuring the former president and killing a rally goer, firefighter Corey Comperatore. There have been no known recent attempts on other former presidents: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama or Jimmy Carter, who has been in hospice care since February 2023. 

“We’re getting a lot of hatred on both sides, and a lot of these comments that really do – like I said – embolden people to think that they’re going to ‘fix the problem,’” said Gene Petrino, a retired SWAT commander for Florida’s Plantation Police Department for 26 years and an expert on active shooter incidents who spoke to Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “‘They can’t let this happen. We can’t lose our freedoms. We can’t lose this.’ And I’m not picking sides, and I have seen both sides do it. But unfortunately, Trump has been labeled as public enemy No. 1 for democracy.”

Petrino added: “He’s just got a higher footprint, so to speak, of who would be assassinated,” among former presidents. 

Trump was safely escorted from his golf club in West Palm Beach on Sunday afternoon when a man identified as Ryan Routh allegedly directed the muzzle of a rifle through a chain-link fence toward where Trump was located on the green. Routh was arrested shortly after while trying to flee in his car and authorities are investigating the incident as an apparent assassination attempt. 

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The incident marks the second attempt on Trump’s life in just a few months. Trump was shot in the ear in July while holding a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooting, which was carried out by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, left two rally attendees injured, and Comperatore was fatally shot while protecting his family. 

Petrino said he has not heard of any plots against the other former living presidents, but that the Secret Service should take the second plot against Trump into consideration as they protect the other presidents.  

​​”Right now, they have had two [attempts] within a couple of months of each other. There’s something going on, and we better really start tightening up what we’re doing across the board. Not just for Trump, but really for everybody,” he said, arguing Harris and Biden are also targets, but that Trump has a “higher footprint” as a target among former presidents, specifically. 

“You have these keyboard warriors. It’s like a drug. They go out, and they spew all their hate and venom online. [The internet] has allowed these people, for them to stew in their own psychosis.”

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Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Clinton, Obama and Bush inquiring if there is any heightened concern following the second attempt on Trump and if their security has increased, but did not receive replies.