Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a headline that better reflects Donald Trump Jr.’s remarks and to clarify that he made them on July 26, not July 29.
Donald Trump Jr. said on July 26 that the circumstances that gave a 20-year-old would-be assassin a perfect opportunity to kill former President Donald J. Trump were no coincidence.
“I honestly don’t think that the Secret Service agents — many of whom I know and respect — magically rendered an entire roof unprotected for a guy with a rifle to get within 150 yards of it for 20 minutes,” Trump Jr. said in an interview with journalist Tucker Carlson.
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“That doesn’t happen. I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” said Trump Jr. “If you think that that happened by chance, you’re a goddamn idiot.”
Trump Jr.’s shocking remarks have raised public suspicions that have been whispered about mainly in private until now: Was the U.S. Secret Service or others in the government somehow complicit in the assassination attempt? Did the would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, have an accomplice?
J. Michael Waller, a senior analyst at the Center for Security Policy and author of the best-selling book “Big Intelligence: How the CIA Went from Cold War Hero to Deep State Villain,” said the ugliest explanations could not be ruled out.
“It’s really hard to separate incompetence from willful negligence or simple negligence or malice,” Waller told “Blaze News Tonight” on July 19. “You can’t rule out malice. You can’t rule out the possibility that somebody wanted this to happen.”
A top US special operations expert told The Blaze News that after examining all the evidence so far, they found signs that Crooks had been prepared and trained to carry out the assassination plot.
“It is not realistically possible that the government could be so incompetent,” the special agent said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “There is no way that Mr. Crooks could not have been instructed as to which building he should have been in.”
“Ultimate incompetence versus extreme arrogance. I’ve seen a lot of both in 30 years working in government operations. This was neither,” the expert said, suggesting the first clues could be found in Crooks’ actions.
Experts say Crooks likely flew the drone for 11 minutes two hours before the shooting not for surveillance purposes but to plan a route to the compound and rooftops. FBI Director Christopher Wray said at a House of Representatives hearing that Crooks flew the drone about 200 yards from the stage where Trump was speaking.
The Heritage Foundation’s Surveillance Project said cellphone location data linked to Crooks was passed to Butler from Crooks’ home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, on July 4 and July 8.
Special operations experts said Crooks likely knew the location would be changed on the day of the event to allow for parking and setting up parking lots, fencing and concession stands.
“A 20-year-old with no military or government training must have been ‘trained’ in this process to get so many things right – turning off range finders, drones, spy planes, cell phones – and was probably paid by some government or dark source.”
“I don’t believe he acted independently or was a rogue agent,” the expert said. “I’ve seen and been involved in these types of operations for many years. He had instructions.”
According to operational experts, each special forces officer can very easily train or develop about eight to 12 young people, including in precision operations such as planting explosive devices for lethal missions.
This isn’t just something a single recruit does – one agent can lead up to 12 guys and utilize “multiple opportunities” to “activate” the right emotionally unstable, lonely boy at the right time.
“Depending on the operation, it takes at least nine months of source research and training, but I’ve seen it done in as little as six months,” he said. “Then, after the required months of training, it only takes three days to prepare him for a particular operation.”
The assassination attempt on President Trump will likely inspire many more people to try to kill him, experts said.
“Trump is more at risk than ever before,” he said. “Security has been stepped up, but I can say with knowledge and authority that it will not stop, for example, a group of ‘Somali immigrants’ who are fervent supporters of Kamala Harris from taking the risk of launching a suicide bomb attack to remove Trump.”
If the Trump shooting was some kind of deep state operation gone wrong, other operations would normally be put on hold and more extremist groups would take the lead, he said.
The idea that other agents might be preparing to attack Trump again has already sparked discussion among law enforcement, event security and even military special operations experts who say protecting the former president through Election Day and beyond will require the help of battle-hardened private security contractors.
“Today’s Secret Service needs more than just additional, immediate support from private industry,” Waller wrote in a July 24 opinion column in The Blaze-News.
“It is essential that we hold proper elections and that these issues are resolved at the ballot box, not the cartridge box.”
“The assassination attempt on President Trump makes it clear that the quality of the Secret Service’s personnel is being crippled by political agendas,” Waller said. “Privatizing the Secret Service would help quickly resolve this issue.”
Waller said the developments surrounding the assassination attempt necessitated the need to bring in third-party experts for security details and event security, and he suggested appointing Erik Prince, founder of the security firm Blackwater, as Trump’s security chief.
“There is no one on the planet with a better track record of protecting American citizens than Erik Prince,” Waller told “Blaze News Tonight” on July 19. “He had a 100 percent perfect track record of protecting American lives during his time at Blackwater.”
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Waller writes that today’s Secret Service traces its origins to the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln hired the Pinkerton National Detective Agency for counterintelligence. Pinkerton’s private security guards uncovered and thwarted a plot to assassinate Lincoln in Baltimore in 1861.
Waller said presidential candidate and future president Barack Obama was protected by the private security firm Blackwater during his visit to Afghanistan in July 2008. He said Blackwater set the standard for protecting Americans in the most dangerous environments.
Prince said integrating civilian operatives into the existing Secret Service infrastructure would be complicated.
“Integrating private contracting support into a federal effort is extremely difficult and extremely dangerous, especially for private citizens, because the federal bureaucracy is always going to protect itself and it’s always going to put the private citizens in a bind,” Prince told “Blaze News Tonight” on July 16.
“That being said, if the mission requires it and President Trump in fact requests it, I am confident we can find a way to assist him, because it is essential that we have a proper election and that these issues are resolved at the ballot box, not with shell casings.”
Prince said it’s more important than ever to get to the root of the security incident on July 13 and make sure it never happens again.
“It wasn’t the brilliance of the Secret Service that saved President Trump,” he said. “It was poor aim, President Trump shaking his head, and maybe the flapping of an angel’s wings. We the People literally dodged a bullet on Saturday.”
Another U.S. Special Forces officer who trains the Secret Service’s countersniper and countersurveillance teams told The Blaze News that outside security assistance is essential.
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“The US Secret Service was unable to complete the mission and the next attempt will likely fail, but it won’t be a failure,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Based on these facts, rumors are circulating that private security will be provided for President Trump.”
Former President Trump and the public need to realize how serious the Secret Service’s problems are, the sources said.
“To the American people and to President Trump, [Secret Service personnel] “It has been and will continue to be critical to President Trump’s safety,” the source said. “Otherwise security will remain lax.”
Lara Trump, President Trump’s daughter-in-law and chair of the Republican National Committee, said she blamed Secret Service officials for the July 13 fiasco, rather than the agents in the field who were protecting her father-in-law.
“I’m not concerned about the people on the ground with my father-in-law because I saw them,” she told The Blaze News Tonight. “I saw them jump on him and literally get between him and the assassin. And I didn’t know what else was there at the time. Was there another shooter?”
“They risked their lives for him, they were willing to lay down their lives for him, so I have no doubt about their capabilities,” Lara Trump said. “They did exactly what they were supposed to do.”
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