00:00For more on this, we can bring in the Guardian's Washington Bureau Chief, David Smith.
00:05So, David, at this point, what more do we know, and what's the reaction been in the United States?
00:12Yeah, I think worth emphasizing, most weekends during the winter, Donald Trump is at Mar-a-Lago,
00:20his private estate in Palm Beach, Florida. He was there just last weekend, but this was an unusual
00:26one. He was actually in Washington, remains here. He was speaking last night at a national
00:33governor's dinner. Meanwhile, yes, this incident at Mar-a-Lago, as you heard of the police there,
00:41a man in his 20s from North Carolina who's not yet been identified. He was observed at the north gate
00:49of the complex. He'd come inside the security perimeter. I've been there myself a few times.
00:55I can imagine the layout there. He appeared to be carrying a shotgun and a fuel can,
01:00and police eventually shot and killed him. We don't really know much more than that right now.
01:09Certainly no indication of what his motive was, whether he believed Trump was on site. I think
01:17we'll now wait for the police to compile a psychological profile, look for his motive,
01:22try and find out his identity. But it does come just days after another man was shot and killed
01:30while running towards the U.S. Capitol in Washington, also while armed. So I think
01:37the Secret Service and police remain on high alert.
01:41Now, David, as you were going through this, obviously it is still early in the investigation,
01:46but what does this say about an increase in political violence?
01:53It is a grave concern in the United States right now. Clearly, Trump himself in 2024 was the target
02:00of two assassination attempts. Of course, that campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania,
02:07where a bullet literally clipped his ear. And then not long after that, a man was found
02:13on a golf course, also apparently targeting Trump. More recently, of course, we saw the
02:19assassination of Charlie Kirk, a young right-wing activist. There have been state politicians
02:24killed in Minnesota. A recent attack also on a congresswoman there, Ilhan Omar. And the statistics
02:31back this up. Just last year, the U.S. Capitol Police reported some 15,000 incidents targeting
02:38members of Congress. That was a massive increase, about 60 percent on the year before. It speaks
02:44to a tense, febrile political environment in a country where, of course, guns proliferate.
02:52And I think it means everyone remains tense and watchful right now.
02:58David, thank you so much. That's the Guardian's Washington Bureau Chief, David Smith.
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