Anti-aircraft missiles while golfing: Trump security hardens as threats multiply

As President Donald Trump prepares to head out this weekend to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, he will face course features quite different from the usual sand traps: anti-aircraft installations.

The hardware on the course was visible when Trump shook hands with a dozen U.S. Army soldiers while playing golf on a sunny afternoon earlier this month.

“Not worried about missiles or drones,” Trump told the soldiers as the Jackson 5’s “I’ll Be There” played in the background, as seen in a video posted online by a White House staffer on Aug. 1.

“We got it covered,” one of the soldiers replied, gesturing at a vehicle behind the group.

The vehicle behind them was a Humvee armed with an Avenger Air Defense System. An Army surface-to-air missile system, the Avenger can fire multiple short-range missiles at incoming cruise missiles, low-flying aircraft, helicopters and drones. The missiles are mounted on the back of a Humvee, on a turret that can spin 360 degrees and fire in any direction.

“At the request of the U.S. Secret Service, ground-based air defense equipment was operating,” Lt. Col. Andrew Scott, an Air Force spokesperson, said in a statement at the time.

The following weekend, F-16 jets from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which monitors and protects U.S. airspace, also intercepted “multiple general aviation aircraft” that violated the temporary flight restrictions over the golf course. Officials said both aircraft were escorted safely out of the airspace.

Days later, another NORAD F-16 used flares to intercept a general aviation aircraft over Geneva, Ohio, where Trump was attending the Patriot Games, a youth sports competition, on a Tuesday evening.

In July, after the NATO summit in Turkey, Trump used a decoy plane to make his way back to the U.S. after a reportedly credible threat on his life from Iran. Warnings of a possible shoulder-fired missile led to the plane swap, prompting questions about what security measures are needed to ensure the president’s safety against low-altitude missiles and drones.

The decoy plane and advanced weaponry reflect the heightened security around Trump as the Iran war continues and as the Secret Service responds to what one source described as an unprecedented number of threats against the president’s life.

Trump is now the focus of more threats than any modern American president has been, according to one senior Secret Service official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. The official said the agency was investigating the highest number of threat cases in its history, with agents examining 10,000 threat cases, 40% more than last year.

Agents have conducted some 3,000 protective visits to people who have threatened to kill Trump or other federal officials, and many of the people making the threats have mental health issues, the official said. The Secret Service has also seen a tenfold increase in mental health commitments as a result of its investigations.

“What we are seeing now is something I’ve never seen before,” the official told MS NOW earlier this week. “Threat environment is the highest we have seen.”

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