An attempt by ISIS to assassinate President Donald Trump in Manila last year was foiled by Secret Service agents, a National Geographic documentary aired on Sunday detailed for the first time.
The assassination attempt was kept under wraps, Newsweek reported, but it has now emerged that multiple threats were made in the days leading up to Trump’s visit to the Philippines last November for the Association of South East Asian Nations’ ASEAN 50 Summit.
The two-hour NatGeo network special "United States Secret Service: On the Front Line" was previewed on YouTube.
A series of hostile tweets and videos were posted to social media prior to Trump’s arrival, and minutes before Trump landed Secret Service agents discovered a jihadist was hiding out blocks away from the hotel in Manila where the U.S. president was scheduled to stay.
Agents intercepted an ISIS operative who was meeting an “associate” in a park about a mile from Trump’s hotel, Newsweek noted.
“With technology, that was one of the things that was a blessing for us, because we were able to know that he was moving close to us, where he was, and track him. That was a huge piece of stopping the threat,” Special Agent Chad Ragan told The Daily Beast.
“Of course, we had a lot of help from the locals – and that’s an essential key to it that can’t be understated, is how great these foreign governments are, or even locals,” he added.
There have been other reported threats against Trump that were foiled by the Secret Service.
Most recently, a “suspicious envelope” addressed to the president was confiscated by agents.
A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to the Business Insider that the Force Protection Agency detected “a suspicious substance” while screening mail at a remote facility.
There have also been threats against members of the extended Trump family, which emerged in February with reports that Donald Trump Jr.’s former wife was taken to a Manhattan hospital for precautionary reasons after opening a suspicious letter sent to their residence that contained an unidentified substance.
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