CaliToday (20/10/2025): A full-scale federal investigation is underway after U.S. Secret Service agents discovered an empty hunting stand ominously positioned with a direct line of sight to the landing area for Air Force One, officials confirmed.
The chilling discovery was made on Friday during a routine security sweep just hours before President Trump was scheduled to land at Palm Beach International Airport for his weekend at the nearby Mar-a-Lago resort.
FBI Director Kash Patel told NewsNation, a sister company of The Hill, that the Secret Service "discovered an elevated hunting structure that appeared to be in a direct line of sight of the landing area for Air Force One."
No individuals were found at the scene, but the nature and location of the structure immediately triggered a high-level response.
"The FBI has now taken over the investigation, deploying a full evidence-collection force on-site, as well as mobile cell-site data analysis technologies," Patel added, indicating a significant effort to trace anyone recently associated with the location.
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, confirmed the agency is "working closely with the FBI and our Palm Beach County law enforcement partners," and that the FBI is the lead agency on the case.
"During routine advance security preparations for the President’s arrival in Palm Beach which includes the use of technology and comprehensive physical sweeps our teams identified several items of note near Palm Beach International Airport," Guglielmi said.
He emphasized that the discovery did not disrupt the president’s schedule. "There was no impact to the President’s travel, and no individuals were present or involved at the location."
President Trump departed Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at approximately 4:45 p.m. ET on Friday, arriving safely at Palm Beach International Airport around 6:25 p.m.
A photograph provided by the Secret Service to The Hill showed the structure was an elevated tree stand, crudely constructed and secured to a tree with distinctive green ropes.
This unsettling incident is the latest in a disturbing pattern of serious security threats targeting the President, particularly in the Palm Beach area.
Just last month, a man was federally indicted for allegedly shining a high-intensity laser at the Marine One helicopter while President Trump was aboard.
Only one day after that indictment, a Florida jury convicted Ryan Routh, 59, of a plot to assassinate the President at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach last September. Routh now faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
The President spent the weekend at Mar-a-Lago and was scheduled to return to Washington, D.C., on Sunday evening. The investigation into the hunting stand is ongoing.
