Asked why the suspect was able to get within that distance of the former president, Mr Bradshaw told a press conference that the golf course had security vulnerabilities owing to the shrubbery surrounding it.
“[If] somebody gets into the shrubbery, they’re pretty much out of sight,” he said, but conceded that if Trump was a sitting president, “we would have had this entire golf course surrounded”.
“Authorities just acknowledged if President Trump was president, they’d do more to protect him,” said Steve Scalise, the Republican House majority leader.
“This must change,” he added. “Secret Service must up their level of protection of him to their full capabilities—including expanding the perimeter.”
Mr Bradshaw suggested the arrangements were likely to change going forward.
But the incident has raised yet more questions for the Secret Service, two months after its director was forced to resign after admitting the agency “fell short” of its mission to protect Trump in Pennsylvania.
The agency is being led by an acting head, Ronald Rowe, in the interim.
Republican congressman Tim Burchett laid the blame at the Secret Service which he said was “compromised” and lacking in “leadership”.
“Why in the world would anybody be anywhere near the perimeter of this? This line of sight that we talk about is just beyond me. So we’ve got to get some answers,” he told Fox News.
“There is no way in hell that somebody should have been that close to President Trump with an AK Steel or AK-47 or whatever it was with a scope.”
Republican senator Lindsey Graham called for the Secret Service to be moved away from the jurisdiction of “the Department of Homeland Security and back to the Treasury Department, where they had more focus”.
“Also, it is time to increase resources,” he said.
Security experts also questioned how the gunman learned of Trump’s movements given his daily schedule is not released publicly.
Trump had just returned to his home state of Florida and took a break from the campaign trail to play a round with the real estate magnate Steve Witkoff.
Some speculated that as a creature of habit, the Republican’s movement may not have been difficult to guess.
Trump frequently spends Sunday mornings playing golf at the club and then has lunch there.
Moreover, the large motorcade used to transfer him the five miles from his Mar-a-Lago residence to his golf club brings more visibility to his travel route.