Man arrested after monitoring security at Trump golf course in LA County

Deputies arrested Sean Steiner, 36, of Glendale, Arizona, near Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles in Rancho Palos Verdes after he appeared to be monitoring security-planning activity and was found with a semi-automatic short-barreled rifle, ammunition and body armor. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said Steiner was booked on multiple felony firearm charges.

The legal weight of the case rests on more than a stray weapon call. Ammunition, when found alongside a short-barreled rifle and body armor, can move an encounter from a security disruption into a felony firearms investigation, and officials treated the Rancho Palos Verdes arrest that way. One description of the gun called it Joker-themed or painted with Joker imagery, and another account said Steiner also had a loaded revolver.

The arrest fit into a broader security pattern that has followed Trump’s golf movements since the Sept. 15, 2024 incident in Florida. In that case, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of Hawaii, was identified in coverage after gunshots were reported in Trump’s vicinity. The U.S. Secret Service said it was investigating the protective incident with the FBI and other law-enforcement partners, and the next day the Justice Department charged Routh with firearms offenses. No injuries were reported.

Trump’s Southern California course has long been a visible target for political disruption. Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles sits in Rancho Palos Verdes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula and is an 18-hole, oceanfront public course. In 2017, environmental activists raked “No More Tigers, No More Woods” into a green, leaving the club with a history that mixes protest, vandalism and law-enforcement attention.

Security scrutiny around Trump golf outings only intensified after the Florida case. ABC News reported that Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe said more security planning would be needed for Trump to keep golfing. In April 2026, another armed man was detained near the same Los Angeles-area course, reinforcing how often the club has become part of the protective perimeter around Trump’s movements.