Security lapses: Secret Service responsible for Trump attack

FBI agents search the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach on Tuesday.

Former US President Donald Trump is removed from the stage by the secret service after the attack on July 13

WASHINGTON (EFE).— An internal report by the United States Secret Service published yesterday concluded that security failures committed by the elite agency in charge of monitoring presidents and top-level political figures were responsible for the attack suffered by former President Donald Trump last July, in which he was injured in the ear.

The internal review conducted in the wake of the incident — one of multiple investigations being conducted into the incident — concluded, among other things, that the officers who were monitoring the former president (2017-2021) while he was leading a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, did not have the technical capacity to communicate with local police.

Nor did they detect drones on the day of the rally, the report said, adding that officers did not discuss beforehand how to protect a warehouse complex surrounding the site.

On July 13, Trump was shot in the ear while participating in a rally. The shooter, a 20-year-old who was later shot dead by Secret Service agents, managed to fire from a rooftop about 140 meters from the former president, although outside the security perimeter.

The harsh criticism that followed prompted the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who described the attack as “the most significant operational failure of the Secret Service in decades.”

Scrutiny of the agency has increased in recent days after Trump was also reportedly at risk of a second assassination attempt while golfing in Florida on Sunday, at the hands of a man who prowled the area for hours armed with an AK-47 rifle equipped with a telescopic sight, without firing any shots.

The highest level

At a press conference yesterday, the current acting director of the Secret Service, Ronald Rowe, said that Trump is currently receiving “the highest level of protection possible,” security equal to that of President Joe Biden and candidate Kamala Harris.

On Sunday, Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, had “counter-sniper elements present” and “a full counter-attack team in the vicinity.”

The officer who spotted the attacker “identified a threat, an individual with a long weapon, and made quick decisions and acted quickly to mitigate it. The former president was not shot, he was not exposed,” he said, and the arrest was proof that “the procedures work” and “that high level of protection is working.”