Despite being a former president and presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump travels with a Secret Service agent that is a fraction of the size of a sitting president, sources told The Washington Post.
Trump was the subject of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Friday night, when he was grazed by a sniper’s bullet and immediately surrounded by Secret Service and local police.
But because Trump is a candidate, not a sitting president, he will have far less Secret Service protection than a sitting president like Joe Biden, the sources said.
As a former president himself, Trump should have received additional security from the agency, the people said. His campaign had asked for more security but the request fell on deaf ears, the people said.
Sources say President Trump is left vulnerable because he has no counterattack, no sniper defenses and no air support.
In Friday’s incident in Pennsylvania, local police were on the scene to assist but have limited capabilities compared with the Secret Service, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.
The gunman, who was on the roof of a manufacturing plant more than 130 yards from the stage, shot the president, killed one rally attendee and critically wounded another before being quickly killed by a Secret Service sniper.
The outdoor event at the Butler Farm Show gave the shooter an elevated vantage point that gave him a nearly unobstructed view of the former president.
The Washington Post reported that the gunman was killed by a sniper team, which responded to gunfire from behind the bleachers on the roof of another building near where Trump was standing, according to sources.
If a sitting president were to speak at Friday’s event, the Secret Service would have more agents on the scene and be monitoring high and low areas like where the shooter was positioned, the officials said.
When Trump held a campaign rally in the Bronx in May, the Secret Service did not provide the former president with counter-assault or counter-sniper teams, according to sources. Instead, the NYPD provided airborne counter-sniper and counter-assault crews.
Lawmakers are calling for an investigation into why the Secret Service allowed such a security breach to occur.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Friday night that his committee would open an investigation into the shooting.
Comer said he has already contacted the Secret Service to request a hearing into the suspected assassination attempt on Trump, a former president and Republican presidential candidate.
“I have already contacted the Secret Service to request clarification and have asked Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to attend the hearing, and the Oversight Committee expects to send a formal invitation shortly,” Comer said in a statement.
“My prayers are with President Trump and the victims of today’s assassination attempt at his rally in Pennsylvania. I am grateful to the brave Secret Service agents who risked their lives to protect President Trump and to the American patriots in the audience who helped those who were injured,” he added.
President Trump was taken to a local hospital for treatment and was found to be in good health.
