Former President Donald Trump’s campaign was forced to cancel several events and rallies leading up to the failed assassination attempt because the Secret Service had failed to properly secure the area, aides told The Washington Post.
In the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Trump, concerns about the Secret Service’s ability to protect the former president have come to light and eventually forced Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle to resign. The Trump campaign previously requested additional precautions but were denied “additional protection” including “more snipers, bomb-sniffing dogs, magnetometers and specialty teams” ahead of the assassination attempt because Secret Service officials said the resources weren’t available, aides told The Washington Post. (RELATED: Secret Service’s ‘Inexcusable’ J6 Failures Stem From Much Deeper Problems, Former Agents Say)
The Secret Service has stepped up protection so much since the assassination attempt that Trump aides have said it feels like the former president is in office again, sources told the outlet.
“We live in a military encampment again,” one source told The Washington Post of the increased security at events and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
Secret Service agents told the outlet that its manual for protecting former presidents doesn’t take into account his bid for reelection, his “unusually high profile and pace of public events.”
US Republican candidate Donald Trump is seen with blood on his face surrounded by secret service agents as he is taken off the stage at a campaign event at Butler Farm Show Inc. in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. QUALITY REPEAT (Photo by REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images)
Following the assassination attempt, Trump’s team was forced to stop holding outdoor rallies out of security concerns, The Washington Post reported. Now, the agency has reportedly approved the use of bullet proof glass for future outdoor events featuring the former president.
Despite the previous threat on his life, the former president plans to return to the place of the assassination attempt, Butler, Pennsylvania, to continue his rally. (RELATED: Secret Service Agent Abandoned Post Guarding Trump To Breastfeed: REPORT)
The Secret Service and the FBI previously told lawmakers that Thomas Crooks, who attempted to assassinate Trump, was identified an hour before he began shooting at the former president, two sources familiar with a briefing previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Cheatle previously told ABC News that the roof where Crooks had been perched was not covered because it was “sloped.”
“There was zero accountability from Secret Service,” one source familiar with what occurred at the briefing told the DCNF. “They identified the shooter 60 minutes prior to the assassination attempt.”
