前特勤局官员警告，在海湖庄园最新一起安保漏洞事件后，特朗普面临低技术威胁
本周末海湖庄园发生致命对峙事件，这是继巴特勒集会袭击和高尔夫球场对峙之后的最新一起事件，专家称其存在“模仿效应”担忧
作者：摩根·菲利普斯
福克斯新闻
2026年2月23日美国东部时间下午6:15发布
本周末在海湖庄园发生的致命对峙事件，是一系列涉及唐纳德·特朗普总统的高调安全事件中的最新一起。前特勤局官员警告称，如今低技术、独行侠式的袭击者已成为总统保护工作面临的最严峻挑战之一。
“现在我们所有人都应该清楚，特朗普是美国历史上最受威胁的总统，”前特勤局特工威廉·“比尔”·盖奇（William “Bill” Gage）周一告诉福克斯新闻数字频道，他指出近年来发生了多起高调事件。盖奇表示，与过去总统任期不同，威胁程度往往会随时间减弱，“他当总统的时间越长，这类袭击就发生得越多。”
盖奇称，最难防范的案件往往是技术含量最低的。他指出，最近的事件是“没有任何训练的人使用简陋武器发动的超低技术袭击”。“如果你在星巴克排队时站在他们后面，你甚至不会多看他们一眼。”
盖奇表示，在他12年的特勤局职业生涯中，威胁环境发生了转变。他说，2002年加入特勤局时，该机构正从他所说的传统“独行枪手”模式（如暗杀约翰·F·肯尼迪的李·哈维·奥斯瓦尔德，或70-80年代全球头号通缉恐怖分子“豺狼卡洛斯”）转向适应9/11事件后的世界，关注基地组织和后来的“伊斯兰国”（ISIS）等有组织恐怖网络。
“但如果你看看巴特勒和海湖庄园的两起事件，这些都是超低技术袭击，”盖奇说，“低技术袭击者往往是那些容易被忽视的群体。”
他还警告称，此类事件的细节公开后可能会引发“模仿效应”。
“如果由特勤局决定，他们绝不会公开报道这些事件中的任何一起，”盖奇表示，他认为广泛报道会让其他人“研究发生了什么”并试图模仿改进。
他说，在当今高度互联的政治环境中，这种动态为特工在威胁出现前阻止下一次袭击增加了另一层复杂性。
2026年2月22日周日凌晨，一名来自北卡罗来纳州的21岁男子奥斯汀·塔克·马丁（Austin Tucker Martin）闯入佛罗里达州棕榈滩特朗普的海湖庄园安全区域后，被美国特勤局特工和当地警长副手开枪击毙。
当局称，马丁驾车通过北门，携带霰弹枪和汽油罐。在被命令放下两者后，他放下了油罐，但举起霰弹枪对准官员，导致官员开枪并当场将其击毙。当时特朗普和第一夫人梅拉尼娅·特朗普正在华盛顿。
这起事件是不到两年内特朗普第三次高调安全遭遇事件。2024年7月，一名枪手在宾夕法尼亚州巴特勒的竞选集会上开枪，擦伤特朗普的耳朵并打死一名与会者，随后被特勤局狙击手击毙。2024年9月，一名持步枪的男子在特朗普打高尔夫球时在其球场附近被特工拦截，该嫌疑人后来因企图暗杀罪名被定罪。
尽管这些事件引起了广泛关注，前副主任助理唐·米哈莱克（Don Mihalek）表示，最新的海湖庄园入侵事件并不一定意味着保护系统出现故障。
“他只是通过了一个活跃俱乐部的外部大门，”米哈莱克告诉福克斯新闻数字频道，“这不是有人闯入了总统的住所。”他说，特工在几秒钟内就与嫌疑人对峙，快速反应证明了重叠的安全层在正常发挥作用。
米哈莱克称，总统保护工作依赖多层安全保障，因为像海湖庄园这样的私人财产外围无法像白宫那样完全封闭。“如果他最终进入海湖庄园的总统住宅，那可能就是另一个层面的问题了。”
他还告诫不要孤立地看待近期事件，指出总统每年通常会面临约2000起威胁，其中大多数在公众知晓前就已被化解。“这些只是非常公开的案例，”米哈莱克说，他认为社交媒体时代放大了这种升级的感觉。
米哈莱克以去年夏天巴特勒集会枪击事件为例，说明早期干预的决定性作用，他指出当地执法部门据报道在袭击发生前就已确认嫌疑人身份。“如果有人上前问‘你是谁？’，我们现在就不会谈论巴特勒事件了。”
随着特朗普准备在国情咨文演讲中向国会发表讲话，两位前官员均表示，国会山的安保态势不太可能因本周末的事件而改变。
国情咨文演讲被定为“国家特殊安全事件”——这是联邦安全规划的最高级别，要求特勤局、美国国会警察、联邦调查局（FBI）、国防部和其他机构进行协调。这一指定允许扩大外围控制、限制空域以及制定政府连续性计划。
国会大厦周围已在国情咨文演讲前设置路障。（凯莉·库珀/路透社）
此前负责国情咨文演讲前期规划的盖奇表示，该活动有一套成熟的安全“蓝图”，已考虑到最坏情况。“实际上已经不可能再加强了。”
两位前官员均表示，当今总统保护工作面临的核心挑战是不可预测性：这些人训练极少、武器简陋，但能在网上找到支持者。与有组织的极端主义网络不同，这类袭击者在行动前可能留下很少可检测的信号。
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6389753324112
Mar-a-Lago shooting highlights President Trump security challenges | Fox News
Former Secret Service officials warn of low-tech threats facing Trump after latest Mar-a-Lago breach
Weekend Mar-a-Lago shooting marks latest incident after Butler rally attack and golf course confrontation as experts cite ‘copycat effect’ concerns
By Morgan Phillips
Fox News
Published February 23, 2026 6:15pm EST
A deadly confrontation at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend is the latest in a string of high-profile security incidents involving President Donald Trump, as former Secret Service officials warn that low-tech, lone actors now pose one of the toughest challenges to presidential protection.
“It should be quite clear to all of us by now that Trump is the most threatened president in the history of the U.S.,” former Secret Service agent William “Bill” Gage told Fox News Digital Monday, pointing to multiple high-profile incidents in recent years. Unlike past presidencies, where threat levels often subsided over time, Gage said, “the longer he’s president, the more these attacks keep happening.”
Gage said the most difficult cases to prevent are often the least sophisticated. The recent incidents, he noted, were “super low-tech attacks by people with zero training,” using rudimentary weapons. “If you were standing behind them in line at Starbucks, you wouldn’t have given them a second look,” he said.
Gage said the threat landscape shifted over the course of his 12-year career as a Secret Service agent. When he joined the Secret Service in 2002, he said the agency was moving away from what he described as the traditional “lone gunman” model — figures like Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated John F. Kennedy, or international militants such as “Carlos the Jackal,” one of the world’s most wanted terrorists in the ’70s and 80s — and adapting to a post-9/11 world focused on coordinated terrorist networks like al Qaeda and later ISIS.
A deadly confrontation at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend is the latest in a string of high-profile security incidents involving President Donald Trump.(Marco Bello/Reuters)
“But if you look at Butler and the two incidents at Mar-a-Lago, those were super low-tech attacks,” Gage said. “The low-tech actors are the ones that tend to slip through the cracks.”
He also warned of a potential copycat effect when details of such incidents become public.
“If it were up to the Secret Service, they would never report any of these incidents ever,” Gage said, arguing that widespread coverage allows others to “study what happened” and attempt to refine it.
In today’s hyperconnected political climate, he said, that dynamic adds another layer of complexity for agents trying to stop the next threat before it materializes.
In the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, a 21-year-old man identified as Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service agents and a local sheriff’s deputy after entering the secure perimeter of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Authorities say Martin drove through the north gate carrying a shotgun and a gasoline can. After being ordered to drop both, he dropped the can but raised the shotgun toward officers, who fired and killed him at the scene. Trump and First lady Melania Trump were in Washington at the time.
The incident marked the third highly publicized security encounter involving Trump in less than two years. In July 2024, a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing Trump’s ear and killing an attendee before being shot by a Secret Service sniper. In September 2024, a man armed with a rifle was confronted by agents near Trump’s golf course while he was playing; that suspect was later convicted on attempted assassination charges.
While the incidents have drawn intense attention, former Deputy Assistant Director Don Mihalek said the latest Mar-a-Lago intrusion does not necessarily signal a breakdown in protective systems.
“He got through an exterior gate of an active club,” Mihalek told Fox News Digital. “This wasn’t someone reaching the president’s residence.” Agents confronted the suspect within seconds, he said, describing the rapid response as evidence that overlapping security layers functioned as designed.
Mihalek said presidential protection relies on multiple rings of security because outer perimeters at properties like Mar-a-Lago cannot be sealed in the same way as the White House. “If he ended up in the president’s house on Mar-a-Lago, that might be a different conversation,” he said.
He also cautioned against viewing recent incidents in isolation, noting that presidents routinely face roughly 2,000 threats per year, most of which are mitigated before the public ever becomes aware of them. “These just happen to be very public instances,” Mihalek said, arguing that the social media era amplifies perceptions of escalation.
Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump is whisked away by Secret Service after shots rang out at a campaign rally at Butler Farm Show Inc. on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.(Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
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Mihalek pointed to last summer’s rally shooting in Butler as an example of how early intervention can be decisive, noting that local law enforcement had reportedly identified the suspect prior to the attack. “If somebody had walked up and said, ‘Hey, who are you?’ we wouldn’t be talking about Butler,” he said.
As Trump prepares to address Congress at the State of the Union, both former officials said the security posture at the Capitol is unlikely to change in response to the weekend incident.
The annual address is designated a National Special Security Event — the highest level of federal security planning — triggering coordination among the Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police, FBI, War Department and other agencies. The designation allows for expanded perimeter controls, airspace restrictions and continuity-of-government planning.
Barricades go up around the Capitol ahead of the State of the Union.(Kylie Cooper/Reuters)
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Gage, who previously led advance planning for State of the Union addresses, said the event operates under a well-established security “blueprint” built to account for worst-case scenarios. “There’s really no way to increase it anymore,” he said.
Both former officials said the defining challenge for presidential protection today is unpredictability: individuals with minimal training, rudimentary weapons and the ability to find reinforcement online. Unlike organized extremist networks, such actors may leave few detectable signals before acting.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6389753324112
