SAS: Who dares Wins star Billy Billingham notoriously protected Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Now, the Sunday Times bestselling author says he could’ve protected the Donald Trump assassination attempt and even offers to step in!
Billy, who’s planning for his upcoming tour starting in October famously protected some of the biggest names in the business.
Being a bodyguard to Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt ain’t just about whacking on a suit and looking sharp.
“It's hard work,” Billy tells Loaded. “It's long hours and yes, it can be boring. And I always say that if you’re doing your job right, most days should be boring because you’ve anticipated everything in advance. You think of a bodyguard as a big guy, six foot, V-shaped, earpiece in, it’s the image, right? That's what people naturally think when they picture a bodyguard. But bodyguarding is really all about planning and being one step ahead. So what was it really like? It was long, 18 hour days, it was boring. But the reason I didn't have any serious threats or challenges is because I anticipated what could happen and I bounced around it. When I get into a crowd, I'm not looking at my client, I'm looking at the crowd, I'm looking through the crowd. From my experience, I know that 99% of the people came out to see Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt to smile at their heroes. So I look at a celebrity crowd and I can see everybody smiling. As soon as there's somebody who’s not smiling, that tells me something's not right.”
Billy reckons he could’ve prevented the recent assassination attempt on Donald Trump and even offers his services.
“Tactically, it was not handled very well,” he says. “Being critical, it looks as though Trump’s team was not the right team. I think there were probably people in that team who perhaps were not best suited to the job. If it were down to me, I would have the right people doing the job- simple as that. The people who I know have experience of doing it and whom I know that I can trust when things go wrong.
“Going right back to the start of the Donald Trump incident, the advanced party should have been down there and said, “Right, where's the stage going to be? Where does Trump need to be?” I'm pretty sure they did that, but for some reason they overlooked what is always the threat. Anything that is overlooking your client is a threat. So you counter that. My simple answer would've been to have had a scaffold tower put between all those buildings, higher than anything else and have somebody on that platform looking down on top of all those buildings; simple. And then the team that you did see, the snipers, looking at everything else; the windows, balconies and so on. So everything would’ve been covered. It was simple. And as soon as something didn't seem right, I as a team leader would've been looking through the crowd. If you actually look at the footage now, you could see commotion going on over in that area because people spotted the guy on the roof. So for me as the main security man, I'd have been watching and going, “Hang on, what's not right?” I’d then take my client, Donald, and say, “Sir, could you stop for a minute? Could you come with me?” I’d have taken him off stage for a while as a precautionary measure. It might have been nothing, but in this case, it wasn't nothing. It was somebody about to try to assassinate him. I don't think I'd allow that to happen and it wouldn't have got to that stage if I was heading up security. I would absolutely protect Trump if he was my client. Absolutely I would.”