The Secret Service’s explanation for the security failings that allowed a 20-year-old gunman to shoot former President Trump multiple times continues to evolve, with the agency recently acknowledging that it had rejected some of the Trump campaign’s requests for additional security.
The revelation, first reported by The Washington Post, that the Secret Service had refused repeated requests by Trump’s security forces was just the latest in a string of ever-changing explanations from the agency, which initially vehemently denied claims that it had issued such refusals.
“Any assertion that members of the former President’s security team requested additional security resources and that the U.S. Secret Service or Department of Homeland Security denied them is categorically false,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the day after the assassination attempt on Trump.
But after The Washington Post reported that Trump’s refusal to provide extra security had been a source of tension between the Guard and headquarters for more than a year, Guglielmi walked back his denial.
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“The Secret Service’s mission is broad, challenging and complex,” he told The Washington Post in a statement. “We work every day in an environment of constantly changing threats to ensure the safety and security of our protected individuals across a wide range of events, travel and other challenging circumstances. We implement a comprehensive, layered strategy to balance personnel, technology and specialized operational needs.”
Guglielmi explained that when the Secret Service can’t provide resources, it typically turns to local and state law enforcement to fill the gap.
“In cases where specialized Secret Service units or resources were not provided, authorities have made changes to ensure the safety of protected subjects,” Guglielmi told Fox News Digital. “This may include leveraging state and local partners to provide specialized capabilities or identifying alternatives to reduce protected subjects’ exposure to the public.”
The Secret Service has also offered a different explanation for the fiasco at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, with the agency’s director, Kimberly Cheatle, telling ABC News last week that the building where the former president was shot had a “sloping roof” that would have been dangerous for agents.
Two FBI agents search the roof of the AGR International Corporation adjacent to the Butler Fairgrounds where Matthew Thomas Crooks fired shots at former President Trump on July 14, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
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“That building in particular has a sloped roof on the highest part, so, you know, for safety reasons, you don’t want people on a sloped roof, so the decision was made to protect the building from the inside,” she said.
Senators were told during a briefing on the incident last week that the Secret Service had flagged down the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, as a suspicious individual more than an hour before he opened fire on Trump. The service also revealed that a counter-shooter had spotted Crooks and flagged him as a potential threat 19 minutes before the shooting.
But the briefing left many senators unsatisfied, with many cutting the call short and slamming the agency for a lack of transparency and failure to answer detailed questions.
“It’s infuriating,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told Fox News Digital after the press conference, noting that Cheatle acknowledged “there were mistakes and gaffes” by police in the lead-up to the shooting.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle holds a press conference in Chicago on June 4. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
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“This was a simple checkbox checkbox thing. It doesn’t provide information, it just gives four senators an opportunity to ask questions. It doesn’t provide the kind of information people need,” Johnson added.
The developments and lack of transparency have led some lawmakers to call for Cheatle to resign, with Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas arguing that security “failures” “necessitate a change in leadership at this agency.”
“The unexplained and inexcusable negligence in basic security measures demands a change in leadership in the Secret Service,” Cornyn said in a post on X last week.
