It happened again. For the second time in two months a would-be assassin took aim from an unprotected perimeter ready to open fire on former president, and current Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump. This time Trump was on a golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida where Secret Service agents spotted and opened fire against the alleged would-be shooter, Ryan Wesley Routh, a reportedly radicalized Leftist, before he could get off a single round. While the individual agents protecting Trump that day performed admirably, the incident exposed the degree to which the U.S. Secret Service is broken, and Trump’s life is in danger.
Even before the latest two assassination attempts against Trump, the Secret Service knew Iran had a contract out to kill him. Nonetheless, at times the agency augmented its understaffed ranks with federal investigative agents with little or no protective operations experience, as was done with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents used in Butler, PA, where Trump was shot in the ear and a local supporter was killed. Those HSI agents reportedly received only a two-hour power point training presentation before being deployed to protect the former president.
President Joe Biden has made the obvious observation the Secret Service needs “help” in its mission to protect Donald Trump. He, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their political allies can begin by ditching the Trump is a “threat to democracy” nonsense that inspired and was parroted by Routh. The Secret Service can start by freeing itself from the bureaucratic morass concerning what level of protection Trump should receive depending on his status as a former president versus a sitting one. This irrelevant distinction in the face of the threat environment confronting Trump was supposed to be dropped by the Secret Service, and Trump’s security posture maximized after the Butler, PA assassination attempt. However, the Sheriff of Palm Beach County has noted the perimeter fence at the golf course where Routh set up a shooting nest would have been secured by the Secret Service had Trump been a “sitting president.”
Unfortunately, it seems leaders at the Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security, where the agency is housed, have continued to deny Trump the security he needs. This, despite the fact the Secret Service reportedly told Congress it was now providing Trump the same level of protection as President Biden. It’s extremely unlikely, however, that Biden will hold anyone accountable for failing to provide Trump with adequate protection or for misleading Congress about it. Instead, Biden will probably continue to denounce political violence while doing little to actually stop it.
Rather than spewing platitudes and waiting for Congress to fund additional new Secret Service agents, which cannot be done in time before the election, or using ill trained investigators to protect Trump, President Biden should step up and take executive action and immediately order the Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense to detail agents to the Secret Service that are trained specifically in protective operations. This could include agents from the U.S. Marshalls, Diplomatic Security Service, Protective Services Battalion, FBI, and others. Congress can take immediate action by providing any needed emergency funding to the Secret Service to pay for those detailed agents.
The Hill should also enable the Secret Service to bring back recently retired agents and pay for state and local law enforcement officers trained in dignitary protection to support protecting Trump. This could include a task force (Joint Task Force Trump) where those state and local officers are deputized as U.S. Marshalls and deployable around the country alongside other federal agents. The former president should also look at hiring his own private security personnel to supplement the Secret Service. Everything needs to be on the table. The status quo is clearly failing, and the stakes could not be higher.
The Secret Service is culturally broken and financially under resourced. Addressing those larger institutional issues will have to wait for after the election. In the meantime, there must be a national effort to protect Donald Trump before the next would-be assassin takes their shot.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="31040 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=31040">4 Comments
If the Secret Service, FBI, CIA, U.S. Marshalls, the DOJ and so on predominantly hire DEI applicants, no amount of money is going to protect Trump. He should hire a private security firm such as Blackwater. Yes, they have a controversial sketchy background but, sadly, I’d trust them more than the government agencies in this OBiden-Harris administration.
These attempts at assassination are a result of a democrat administration that doesn’t see any value to them of a live Donald Trump. Why would they protect a man they hate? After all, to dems Trump is Hitler re-incarnate, and they continue to fuel hatred by repeating that, and many other tropes, over and over, classic Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that some members of the deep state or the present administration are behind these attempts. The media don’t want to report the political beliefs of these men, but, clearly, they are dem adherents. They either followed thru with what they continually hear about Trump from TDS sources or have been recruited by those with TDS who value their sinecures. Sure, this administration should protect Trump, but I doubt it will. I hope the full story gets disclosed, but I doubt it will.
PS: Hillary Clinton is an irresponsible hate-spewing, revenge-stoking, divisive trouble-maker in her latest comments about this attempt on Trump’s life. I confess to HCDS.
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I descend into the hell of Yahoo/AOL News comments frequently to see what leftists are talking about. Not much surprises me but comments lamenting the assassin’s aim or hopes for a successful shot in the future regularly get published despite very strict moderation. These comments remain published for hours or longer. If these comments were directed at Harris, Biden, or any Democrat the comments wouldn’t make it past moderation – and if they were would bring agents to the home of the person writing the comment.