Secret Service Discovers Hunting Stand Overlooking Trump’s Air Force One Exit

The US Secret Service on Thursday discovered a hunting stand in a tree near Palm Beach International Airport which had a direct line of sight to an Air Force One exit area used by President Trump. 

In a Sunday post to X, FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed that the FBI and Secret Service are investigating the matter, and nobody had been linked to the stand.

“USSS spotted a suspicious stand near the AF1 zone in Palm Beach. The FBI is investigating,” Patel wrote. 

USSS spotted a suspicious stand near the AF1 zone in Palm Beach.

The FBI is investigating. pic.twitter.com/nMCoVP9mKB

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) October 19, 2025

The Secret Service’s Anthony Guglielmi confirmed to news outlets that the agency is “working closely” with the FBI and local law enforcement.

“There was no impact to any movements and no individuals were present or involved at the location,” he told Fox News, adding that Secret Service agents found the stand before Trump was due to arrive in Palm Beach.

“While we are not able to provide details about the specific items or their intent, this incident underscores the importance of our layered security measures,” he continued. 

“Hunting Stand” – for all the Whitetail on Southern BLVD, located directly across the street from Palm Beach International Airport, in the median of a major highway… directly facing the Air Force One stairs (200yds). Ps the Secret Service did a GREAT job finding this… pic.twitter.com/WiVVKbt7XH

— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) October 19, 2025

As the Epoch Times notes further, last year, a man was arrested after a Secret Service agent saw a gun barrel sticking through a fenced area near Trump’s golf course in Palm Beach County. Suspect Ryan Routh was convicted by a jury in September on charges that he sought to assassinate Trump, with prosecutors saying that Routh had been camped out near the course for hours before he was spotted.

Two months before the incident, a man identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper team after he managed to fire several shots at Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania where Trump was speaking. Trump’s right ear was hit in the shooting, two others in the crowd were injured, and one man, retired firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed while shielding his family from the bullets.

In September, prominent conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at a college debate event in Utah. The suspect charged in that case, Tyler Robinson, is currently being held in a Utah jail without bail. His next court date is later this month.

After Kirk’s assassination, Trump and Vice President JD Vance said that individuals who espouse far-left ideological viewpoints are fueling political violence.

“Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” Trump said last month. “Tonight, I ask all Americans to commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died.”

Prosecutors and officials in Utah have said that Robinson’s family said the suspect’s political views had moved to the left in recent years.
The Secret Service, in an Oct. 16 post on X, wrote that it carried out a joint training exercise at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s West Palm Beach property, that “will increase protection of the high-profile facility.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the FBI and the Secret Service for comment.

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