Armed man arrested near Trump's Coachella rally with fake press credential

California authorities believe former President Donald Trump may have been the victim of a third assassination attempt on Saturday during a rally in Coachella Valley.

According to a statement from Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, deputies who were part of the former president's protection detail arrested an unlawfully armed man who possessed a fake press credential and a VIP pass for the event.

The suspect, identified as Vem Miller, was caught about a mile from the rally site with an entry pass by phone, local police said. He was carrying a loaded shotgun, a handgun and a large-capacity magazine.

"This incident did not impact the safety of former President Trump or attendees of the event," the Riverside Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Bianco told reporters that the fake credential and VIP pass were so strikingly different that deputies immediately spotted the threat, evading a potential new attack on Trump.

"They were different enough to cause the deputies alarm," Bianco told the Southern California News Group. "We probably stopped another assassination attempt."

Still, authorities have yet to confirm whether or not Miller intended to make an attempt on the life of the former president, who in recent months survived a direct attack at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania when a shooter shot him in the ear. He also suffered a second assassination attempt at his golf course in Florida when another man allegedly planned to shoot the former president.

In the second assassination attempt, a Secret Service agent was able to detect the threat in time, before the man pulled any weapons on Trump.

For the time being, Miller was booked for possessing a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine.

He was also released after posting $5,000 bail, according to police records.

Some media identified Miller as a registered Republican, and local media reported that he was running for Nevada state assembly in 2022.