Donald Trump was unaware of a manhunt for an individual threatening to kill him during his visit to the southern border in Arizona on Thursday.
During Trump’s speech on immigration near the border, the DailyMail.com correspondent asked if he was aware of the threat and if he felt in danger. Trump admitted he “hadn’t heard” about it and speculated that law enforcement “probably wanted to keep it” from him. With a chuckle, he remarked, “Thank you for telling me. Let’s get out of here right now!”
The local sheriff had heightened security around the section of the border wall where Trump was speaking due to the ongoing search for 66-year-old Ronald Lee Syvrud, who is wanted in connection with an alleged assassination plot. This incident comes just six weeks after an attempt on Trump’s life during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a bullet grazed his ear.
Police revealed that Syvrud has multiple outstanding warrants, including charges for DUI, failure to appear in court in Wisconsin, failure to register as a sex offender, and felony hit-and-run in Arizona.
Ahead of Trump’s speech, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels told DailyMail.com that authorities had increased security “based on the threats made,” noting that the event was “in an open venue.” Syvrud is described as six feet tall, weighing 220 pounds, and wearing glasses. His last known address was in Benson, Arizona.
Records indicate that Syvrud was previously registered as a Democrat and has a long criminal history dating back to 1990, including a 2000 conviction for second-degree sexual assault of a child, to which he pleaded no contest. The exact nature of the threats against Trump is unclear, but Sheriff Dannels told DailyMail.com that they were received “off social media.”
“We have zero tolerance for any kind of threats or intents of violence, so we’ll find him. He’ll go to jail,” Dannels said. He added that Syvrud, a registered sex offender in Cochise County, was already wanted for being out of compliance with his registration requirements. “We’re going to arrest him on that. But also the fact his pulse was obviously directed toward this event. So we want to talk to him about that.”
As security measures were being increased ahead of Trump’s speech, Secret Service snipers could be seen stationed on a crane, surveying the area.
The planned assassination attempt on Trump was allegedly tied to his visit to the border in Sierra Vista, a location his campaign had previously visited. Three weeks earlier, Trump’s running mate JD Vance had toured Sierra Vista, where he highlighted security concerns in the region, calling it a “smuggler’s paradise.”
Arizona officials believe Syvrud is still at large in the border region and are urgently attempting to locate him before Trump’s visit. In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said he would be addressing “the plague of migrant crime that so-called Border Czar, comrade Kamala Harris has unleashed on America.”
During his earlier visit to Sierra Vista, Vance criticized Vice President Kamala Harris as a “failed Border Czar” and blamed her for the ongoing migrant crisis. He also underscored the security risks in the area, noting that the mountainous terrain provides smugglers and cartel traffickers with strategic vantage points to evade detection.
“It’s unbelievable what we’re letting happen at the southern border, and it’s because Kamala Harris refuses to do her job,” Vance said at the time.