Florida’s Palm Beach County police on Nov. 8 arrested a Chinese national after he tried, again, to enter President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, according to court records.
Li Zijie, a 39-year-old living in suburban Los Angeles on a student visa, allegedly arrived at the Trump property in an Uber on the afternoon of Nov. 7—the latest in a number of attempts he has made to get into the resort in the past few weeks.
He made the trip hours after getting out of a mental hospital, where he had spent the previous week after a similar effort made in late October, according to a police affidavit.
Li now faces two counts of trespassing, according to the county’s jail records. He’s being held in the Palm Beach County Main Detention Center, with bail set at $100,000.
The arrest has heightened security concerns around Trump, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July during a Pennsylvania rally. In September, the Secret Service identified a man pointing a rifle through a fence at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach while Trump was playing golf. The Justice Department said on Nov. 8 that it had stopped an Iranian plot to kill Trump and charged three men allegedly involved in a murder-for-hire network.
Li first tried to gain entry into Mar-a-Lago on July 19, six days after the Pennsylvania rally shooting, according to court documents viewed by The Epoch Times.
Li pulled up in a gray Toyota and told Secret Service agents he had information implicating China in the assassination attempt and wished to give them the documents. The Palm Beach police issued a trespass warning and told him not to return.
In the following days, Li drove into the town of Palm Beach at least four times but didn’t try to enter Mar-a-Lago, according to court records.
On July 30, officers observed Li driving toward the Mar-a-Lago checkpoint and placing paperwork about Trump on vehicles. He was arrested the next day for allegedly trespassing on the premises. A local court ordered him to stay 500 feet away from the resort and from Trump.
Li’s next attempt was on Oct. 30, when he tried to enlist help from a resident who lives nearby, according to court documents.
The woman had a Trump 2024 political sign in her yard. Li asked if she was a Mar-a-Lago club member and whether she could drive him inside. The woman refused, and after seeing him enter a white Toyota, she called the police, who placed Li in a mental hospital.
He returned to Mar-a-Lago on the day of his release.
In the affidavit regarding the latest intrusion effort, Palm Beach Police said that because of the “increased attempts by Li to gain entrance into Mar-a-Lago” to make contact with the president-elect, a future attempt could lead to an escalation of enforcement.
The Trump resort has faced repeated intrusion efforts, including two from Chinese nationals.
During Trump’s first term as president, a Chinese businesswoman carried four cellphones, a computer, and an external hard drive past the security checkpoint, telling a Secret Service agent that she was there to use the pool, then later presenting herself to reception as an attendee of an already-canceled event.
The woman, Zhang Yujing, was sentenced to eight months in prison for illegally entering the site. She was deported to China two years later, in November 2021.
After that incident, another Chinese national, Lu Jing, was arrested in December 2019 after she entered the property and began taking pictures. A judge later acquitted her of trespassing charges but issued a six-month sentence on a separate charge of resisting arrest.
During Trump’s 2018 Thanksgiving visit to the resort, a University of Wisconsin student sneaked into the Palm Beach club by standing with a group entering Mar-a-Lago. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and apologized for the act.
The Epoch Times has contacted Li’s lawyer for comment.
