(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly warned this week that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is “not safe” from assassination attempts.
Putin’s remarks came at a Thursday press conference during a security summit in Kazakhstan.
“What struck me the most is not that Donald Trump was faced with uncivilized means, including assassination attempts––more than once,” Putin said, as translated by the Associated Press. “By the way, in my view, even now he’s not safe … But he is a clever and cautious man, I should hope he realizes all that.”
Trump famously survived two credible assassination attempts during his 2024 campaign.
The first one occurred in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, when a gunman shot him in the year—also killing a rally-goer and seriously wounding at least two others.
On Sept. 15, another gunman attempted to kill Trump on his Florida golf course, leading him to forego golf for the rest of the campaign.
Since then, he’s received enhanced security from the Secret Service. Earlier this month, footage showed that his security includes robot dogs, which are becoming increasingly common among law enforcement.
But according to former congressman Matt Gaetz—whom Trump unsuccessfully nominated to be his Attorney General—there are possibly up to five known assassination teams in the U.S. conspiring to assassinate Trump.
Gaetz said in September that a senior Homeland Security official told him about the five assassination conspiracies. That was before the Sept. 15 attempt on Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course.
“Three of them that we know are foreign in nature. Two of them we know are domestic in nature, and that calls for a force protection that we do not have around the former president right now,” Gaetz said at the time, adding that DHS officials are “aware of this and were concerned that the Secret Service was not providing sufficient support.”
“Three of these teams are foreign-inspired, from my understanding—Iranians, Ukraine, Pakistan—and, you know, the work is obviously challenging to protect—protective detail, like a presidential campaign that is vigorous and out campaigning,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz hasn’t gone into detail about the alleged assassination teams. The FBI has claimed to thwart an Iranian plot against Trump, but the details of that case look dubious.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
