Trump’s Motorcade Rerouted After ‘Suspicious Object’ Found at Palm Beach Airport

The object was found during security sweeps of the airport before the president was due to arrive, the White House said.

President Donald Trump departs Trump International Golf Club in the presidential limousine, known as The Beast, in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 11, 2026. Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo

The U.S. Secret Service rerouted President Donald Trump’s motorcade on Jan. 11 after its agents discovered a “suspicious object” at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, according to the White House.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the object was found during security sweeps of the airport before the president was due to arrive from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” Leavitt said in a statement provided to multiple news outlets on Jan. 11.

Details about the object and its origin were not immediately available.

Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said the secondary route was taken as a precaution and in line with standard protocol. Trump was able to board Air Force One at the same airport later that day, where he spoke to reporters.

Last October, Secret Service agents discovered a suspicious hunting stand with a line of sight to an Air Force One exit area near the Palm Beach Airport before Trump was set to arrive, which led the FBI to launch an investigation. FBI Director Kash Patel said no one was located at the site.

“The FBI has since taken the investigatory lead, flying in resources to collect all evidence from the scene, and deploying our cell phone analytics capabilities,” Patel told Fox News on Oct. 19, 2025.

Earlier that year, a Texas man was arrested after allegedly scaling the perimeter fence of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Secret Service agents said Anthony Thomas Reyes entered the site without permission and admitted to climbing “over the wall to get into the property.” This was Reyes’s second alleged trespassing incident at the estate, following a previous attempt on Dec. 31, 2024, according to an arrest report.

Separately, in 2024, the Secret Service discovered a gun barrel near Trump’s golf course in Palm Beach County and arrested Ryan Routh as the suspect.

Authorities also discovered a loaded SKS-style rifle, a magazine containing 19 rounds of ammunition, steel armor plates, and a camera near the golf course’s chain-link fence where Routh had been hiding.

Routh was convicted by a jury last September on charges that he sought to assassinate Trump, with prosecutors saying that Routh had been camped out near the course for hours before he was spotted.

In July 2024, Trump survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when a gunman shot him in the ear while he was speaking to supporters. The shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper at the scene. One Trump supporter was killed, and two were injured in the attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.