- Blackwater founder Erik Prince said a five mile per hour wind was enough to push the bullet two inches away.
- A former Navy SEAL has said that Donald Trump was “not saved” by the “incredible response” of the US Secret Service.
- Prince criticized the Secret Service for allowing a shooter to come within 150 metres of the pre-planned event.
Former President Donald Trump may be alive because the shooter was caught in the wrong direction, according to Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL and founder of the private military company Blackwater.
In a post on X on Sunday, Prince joined others who have criticized the Secret Service's response to the assassination attempt on Trump, saying Trump may be alive because of “a nasty wind prediction by an evil assassin.”
Prince pointed to a map of the rally site in Butler, Pennsylvania, which he said was provided by an anonymous SEAL sniper instructor from Red Sky LLC.
Maps show winds blowing westward at 5 miles per hour along the bullet's trajectory.
“As the diagram shows, a wind speed of just five miles per hour was enough to move an unidentified but likely light 55-grain bullet two inches from its intended target on Donald John Trump's forehead to his ear,” Prince said, using Donald John Trump's initials.
“DJT wasn't saved by the great work of the USSS,” he added.
Representatives for Prince and the Secret Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The former president was shot above his right ear on Saturday during a campaign rally in Butler.
A statement from Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the gunman “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position.”
The criminal with the gun “AR-Style” RiflesSatellite imagery showed the plane was just 450 feet away from Trump.
The video of the shooting showed the former president Bloody Face He then pumped his fist in triumph as he was escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents.
President Trump later thanked the US Secret Service and law enforcement for their “swift” response.
But the assassination attempt raised questions about why the U.S. Secret Service did not identify Trump's shooter sooner, and former intelligence officers criticized the service's procedures.
Prince, who reportedly served in the Navy SEALs from 1992 to 1996, cited several shortcomings of the USSS, including allowing a rifle-wielding gunman to get within 150 meters of a preplanned operation and failing to kill the gunman immediately.
“The only effective action was a USSS sniper apparently firing from 488 yards, taking down the assassin, but the assassin then fired at least five shots, wounding DJT and killing and seriously wounding others in the crowd,” he wrote to X.
As founder and CEO of Blackwater, the security firm that played a highly controversial role in the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Prince said the company was “expected to do the basics, or you'd get fired.”
“Apparently, the USSS failed to adhere to the basics of a secure perimeter and, once fired, was clumsy in its withdrawal, leaving the DJT highly vulnerable to subsequent attacks,” he said.
Guglielmi said Sunday that claims the department had rejected a request for extra security from the Trump campaign were “categorically false.”
“Indeed, as part of the accelerated pace of movement in the election campaign, we have added protective resources, technology and capabilities,” Guglielmi said on X.
