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Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies arrested Jeanine John Taele, 38, of Downey on Sunday at President Donald Trump's golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, two days before a scheduled Trump visit. Authorities announced the arrest on Tuesday, as the president arrived for a Republican National Committee fundraiser at the course.
Plainclothes federal agents flagged Taele as a suspicious person at about 3:28 p.m. Sunday. He had been walking the grounds taking photos and video and appeared to be monitoring security preparations, the sheriff's department said. Deputies found a 16-round magazine loaded with hollow-point bullets in his pocket and recovered a loaded pistol from his car in the club parking lot.
A search of his Downey home on Monday turned up more. Investigators recovered an illegally modified AR-platform rifle, a .45-caliber pistol, body armor, high-capacity magazines and ammunition. They also found two radio signal devices and multiple notebooks containing what they described as "concerning statements."
Taele faces several state felonies, including second-degree robbery, receiving a large-capacity magazine and possession of a short-barreled firearm. He has also been charged in a federal complaint with possessing an unregistered short-barreled rifle, and was already under investigation by El Segundo police over a robbery. He pleaded not guilty on Monday, was ordered to stay away from the course and surrender any weapons, and had bail set at $250,000. The sheriff's department said there was "no credible threat" to the community.
The case adds to a run of security scares around the president's properties. A jury in 2025 convicted a man who tried to assassinate Trump at his Florida country club, and law enforcement has repeatedly described Trump as the most heavily targeted figure they protect. Hostile surveillance ahead of a protected visit, paired with a firearms cache at home, fits a pattern investigators watch for at fixed venues that hosts use again and again.
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