The third assassination attempt on Trump was foiled when gunman Vem Miller was arrested outside the Coachella rally, the sheriff says

Local police arrested a gunman outside Donald Trump's rally in the Coachella Valley on Saturday, and the local sheriff said it may be a third assassination attempt against the former president.

The suspect – 49-year-old Vem Miller of Las Vegas – was caught at a checkpoint about a quarter-mile from the rally with fake rally VIP credentials and fake press credentials, as well as unregistered weapons, including a loaded one, according to the D.C.'s office Riverside County sheriff's deputies located a shotgun, a handgun and a high-capacity magazine.

Miller did not have valid identification with him when he was stopped at the rally checkpoint and was arrested after police searched his vehicle and found the weapons, law enforcement sources told The Post.

“We probably stopped another assassination attempt,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said the Riverside Press Enterprise.

However, law enforcement sources told the Post that the FBI does not believe it was an assassination attempt and that the former president's life was never in danger.

Miller – a registered Republican who is believed to have far-right tendencies – was charged with possession of a loaded firearm and a large-capacity magazine and released after posting $5,000 bail, police records show.

Sources said he has a long history of minor lawbreaking and appeared to be a member of the Sovereign Citizens Movement – a far-right movement built on conspiracy theories that assumes governments have no authority over them.

The FBI calls the group “anti-government extremists” who claim that although they “physically reside in this country,” they remain “separate or 'sovereign' from the United States.”

In addition to trying to flout taxes and the court system, the FBI found that sovereign citizens are particularly opposed to traffic stops – to the point that a 25-year-old gunman was shot and killed in 2023 for resisting a traffic stop in Utah refused to comply.

Miller has a master's degree from UCLA and is running for the Nevada State Assembly in 2022, the newspaper reported.

He also appears to be the owner of a California-based CBD company and has promoted conspiracy theories and vicious misogynistic rhetoric online.

The reports of assassination attempts follow a tense summer in which two gunmen were caught just in time trying to kill the former president.

In July, 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on the former president during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump was hit in the ear by a bullet that was just millimeters away from ending his life – while a bystander was killed and two other rally participants were injured. Crooks was shot by Secret Service snipers shortly after firing his weapon.

Then, barely more than two months later, a suspected shooter was caught with an assault rifle hiding in the bushes at Trump's West Palm Beach golf club — while the former president was golfing on the nearest hole just 300 yards away.

The suspect, Ryan Routh, was discovered at the last moment when a Secret Service agent patrolling the president's nearest hole spotted the barrel of his gun sticking out of the bushes. The agents fired, but the gunman escaped and Routh was later captured while fleeing on the highway.

According to federal prosecutors, he hid undetected in the bushes for about 12 hours, waiting for his chance to kill Trump.