A suspicious object discovered during a security sweep at Palm Beach International Airport ahead of President Donald Trump’s departure from Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Sunday prompted the US Secret Service to adjust the presidential motorcade route, the White House said.
The discovery did not disrupt Trump’s travel schedule, officials said, as agents evaluated the item and made security adjustments out of an abundance of caution.
“During advance sweeps of PBI Airport, a suspicious object was discovered by USSS,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly.”
The latest security concern follows a separate incident months earlier, when the US Secret Service discovered a suspicious hunting stand positioned with a direct line of sight to where Trump exits Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport.
That find was made in October, when agents located the elevated stand but did not find anyone in the surrounding area.
“Prior to the President’s return to West Palm Beach, USSS discovered what appeared to be an elevated hunting stand within sight line of the Air Force One landing zone,” FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital at the time. “No individuals were located at the scene. The FBI has since taken the investigatory lead, flying in resources to collect all evidence from the scene, and deploying our cell phone analytics capabilities.”
A law enforcement source later told Fox News Digital the stand appeared to have been in place for “months” before it was discovered.
The hunting stand incident came just weeks after Ryan Routh was found guilty of attempting to assassinate Trump on his Palm Beach golf course, where prosecutors said he had established a sniper’s nest hidden in bushes along a fence line.
That case followed an earlier assassination attempt in which Trump was shot in the ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
