Police outside of Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday August 9, 2022.
Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Trump campaign officials are considering ramping up security at Mar-a-Lago, AP reported Wednesday.
Security at Mar-a-Lago is under scrutiny after Ye was not vetted before his meeting with Trump.
But Trump dismissed the report on Thursday, saying security at the resort is “strong.”
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that security at his Mar-a-Lago resort is “strong”, pushing back on reports that rapper Kanye West’s visit last week had prompted staff to ramp up measures.
“We have very strong security, especially with the extremely talented Secret Service Agents on premises, but when I know someone, as I did Ye, we’re not going to have my guests strip searched, thrown against walls, and otherwise physically beaten,” Trump said on a Truth Social post.
Last week the former president met with West — who also goes by the name Ye — and white supremacist Nick Fuentes at his Palm Beach club in Florida.
Despite being the only one on the guest list, Ye arrived at Mar-a-Lago with several guests including Fuentes and far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.
According to a report by NBC News, the driver of the car transporting the group was waved into the resort after showing a credit card instead of a driver’s license.
The dinner prompted stinging criticism from fellow Republicans, given some of Fuentes’ previous comments, and also led to Trump campaign staff discussing introducing new security measures, the Associated Press reported.
Sources told the AP that in order to prevent a repeat, Trump’s campaign was putting in place new protocols whereby a campaign official would accompany Trump at all times, and all visitors would be fully vetted before meeting the former president.
“The anonymous sources don’t exist. Stories to the contrary are FAKE NEWS!” Trump wrote, in response to reports of increased security at Mar-a-Lago.
Security concerns at Trump’s Florida club are well documented.
In 2017, Trump held sensitive foreign policy discussions with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in full view of other guests eating dinner at the club.
Two years later, a Chinese woman trespassed into the club carrying a USB drive and a device for detecting hidden cameras.
The Secret Service found that she was able to enter the club because the name on her passport partially matched that of a club member.