A bipartisan panel is calling on the Secret Service to make “fundamental reforms” to its operations after former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. President Joe Biden ordered the creation of the panel to effectively review the security provided to Trump.
The panel, composed of former Democratic and Republican cabinet members and security and police officials, stated that the Secret Service had become “bureaucratic, complacent and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved.”
In its 52-page report, the panel identified specific failures and breakdowns within the protective agency, including a lack of clarity by agents, corrosive cultural attitudes about “doing more with less,” a “troubling lack of critical thinking” by Secret Service personnel on the day of and days leading up to the attack on Trump, inadequate planning between the Secret Service and local law enforcement, insufficient training for security agents and an inadequately experience-based approach to the agency’s selection of agents for specific tasks.
During the panel’s investigation, its four members noted that the agents involved in protecting Trump at the Butler rally “appear to have done little in the way of self-reflection in terms of identifying areas of missteps, omissions, or opportunities for improvement.”
The panel’s top two recommendations for agency reform are new leadership and a refocus on the Secret Service’s core protective mission.
The panel recommends that the new leadership “come from outside the service rather than internal promotion,” stating that “the events of Butler suggest that there is an urgent need for fresh thinking informed by external experience and perspective.”
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle stepped down in July 2024 after the Butler shooting, and Acting Director Ronald Rowe has acknowledged failures within the agency, stating he is seeking a larger budget and more training.
“The Secret Service must be the world’s leading governmental protective organization,” the report states. “The events at Butler on July 13 demonstrate that, currently, it is not. All assets should be allocated to that mission before any other tasks… There is simply no excuse to need to ‘do more with less’ concerning the protection of national leaders.”
Last month, the Secret Service Acting Director said Trump is now receiving the agency’s “highest levels of protection.”
