Why the Secret Service wouldn't let Trump have an outdoor rally in Treynor

An event center outside Treynor, Iowa almost hosted a Trump rally last year until the Secret Service decided the outdoor event would be too hard to secure.

• “They wanted to do it outside. They wanted to get combines in here so they could do a farm theme,” Buckingham said.
• “They needed people down there in the trees. And they wanted to drive down there and they needed to drive across the crops to get there,” he said. “And then they needed to be on these other hillsides in every direction. And it was just too much. Too many miles to cover with Secret Service and they couldn’t do it.”
• Related | Treynor farmer finishes grain-bin guesthouse project he started with late wife
  

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Outside Treynor, Iowa the Palace event center has played host to several politicians. I’m your Southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter Katrina Markel. Owner, Craig Buckingham told me, the one politician he wasn’t allowed to host: former president Donald Trump.

“There was just too much ground. Too much ground to cover,” said Buckingham.

Neighbors might recognize Buckingham from an earlier story about his grain bin guesthouse.

The adjacent event center has been the site of campaign events and town hall meetings. The Trump campaign liked it, too.

“They wanted to do it outside. They wanted to get combines in here so they could do a farm theme,” Buckingham said.

The concern? The bucolic Iowa cornfields were hard for the Secret Service to secure.

“They needed people down there in the trees. And they wanted to drive down there and they needed to drive across the crops to get there,” he said. “And then they needed to be on these other hillsides in every direction. And it was just too much. Too many miles to cover with Secret Service and they couldn’t do it.”

Considering the Secret Service needed such a big perimeter at his property, Buckingham is puzzled that a shooter was able to get relatively close to Trump on Saturday.

“It surprised me they didn’t have people on that building watching,” he said.

Buckingham, though, likes hosting politicians at The Palace: “I enjoy the people coming out here and hearing what they have to say and seeing all the people that are interested in what’s going on.”