Author: First Financial Cheng Cheng
Former US President and Republican Trump was shot at a campaign rally on the evening of July 13th local time.
Although the gunman, 20-year-old white male Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead on the spot, how did he climb to the roof of a building only about 150 meters away from the rally podium with an AR-style rifle? This has aroused doubts among government officials and the public about the US Secret Service, which is responsible for the security of presidential candidates.
US President Biden said on the 14th that he had instructed Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to "conduct an independent review of national security at yesterday's rally."
Law enforcement sources said that they would review whether the Secret Service had enough manpower and material resources to provide protection for Trump before he officially became the Republican presidential candidate, and whether the Secret Service conducted a security check on the building where the shooter was located in accordance with procedures.
There are rumors that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly refused to provide Trump with stronger Secret Service protection. In response, Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, denied this statement on social media X, saying: "This is absolutely wrong. In fact, as the pace of the campaign accelerates, we have increased protection resources, technology and capabilities."
Despite this, the House Oversight Committee, which is dominated by the U.S. Republican Party, also said that it would subpoena Chittel to attend a hearing and testify on July 22.
So what kind of organization is the Secret Service, which is the target of public criticism? How does it protect American politicians?
Nine presidents have been assassinated in U.S. history, and four of them died. It can be said that the development of the US Secret Service is closely related to the history of assassinations of US presidents and their candidates.
According to the official website of the Secret Service, the agency was established in 1865 and was then affiliated with the US Treasury Department to combat the problem of large amounts of counterfeit currency circulating in the US market.
However, with the shooting of the 25th President McKinley while attending the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, the Secret Service was given a second mission by Congress for the first time: protecting the president. At that time, only two men were assigned full-time to be in charge of the White House Secret Service.
In 1950, President Truman was shot by Puerto Rican nationalists across from the White House. Influenced by this, Congress enacted a bill the following year to permanently authorize the Secret Service to protect the president, the president's immediate family, the president-elect, and the vice president (that is, the candidate who has won the election but has not yet taken office).
The Former Presidents Act, enacted in 1958, stipulates that starting in 1965, former presidents, their spouses, and children under the age of 16 are entitled to lifelong protection. Although the Clinton administration shortened the lifetime protection period of former presidents to ten years after leaving office on the grounds of cutting spending, Obama later revoked this restriction and restored the lifetime protection system for former presidents.
The inclusion of major presidential and vice presidential candidates in the protection scope of the Secret Service began in 1968, influenced by the assassination of presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
After the September 11 incident in 2001, the US government established the Department of Homeland Security, and the Secret Service was transferred to the jurisdiction of the department.
Currently, the main responsibilities of the Secret Service are divided into two parts: "investigation" and "protection": one part is to protect the US national financial infrastructure and payment system, and the other part is to protect national leaders, visiting heads of state and government, designated locations and national special security events.
Among the employees responsible for protection work, there are mainly elite agents (Special Agents) responsible for protecting dignitaries such as the president and uniformed police departments (Uniformed Division) responsible for the security of buildings and other spaces where dignitaries are located. In addition, there are a small number of employees responsible for administration, professional and technical.
According to the 2023 annual report of the United States Secret Service, there are currently nearly 7,800 people working for it, including more than 3,600 agents and more than 1,600 uniformed police officers.
The Secret Service protects the president 24 hours a day, even when the president undergoes a physical examination or goes to the bathroom.
For example, Dan Emmett, a former US Secret Service employee who directly protected three presidents, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, wrote in his memoirs that because Clinton liked to run in the city during the morning rush hour, the Secret Service needed to arrange four agents and one supervisor each time. They needed to have the endurance to accompany Clinton to finish the run and retain enough physical strength to deal with emergencies.
The food the president eats is prepared under the supervision of the Secret Service. When the president stays in a hotel, the Secret Service will conduct background checks on hotel employees. Those with criminal records are not allowed to go to work during the president's stay. In addition, the Secret Service will arrange a special elevator repairman to be on standby to prevent the president from being trapped.
When the president travels, the Secret Service usually sends an advance team to assess the event location and develop a security plan before the event. For example, agents will physically measure the area, determine the personnel required, and work with counter-snipers to check nearby buildings and their distance from the location of the president or presidential candidates. In addition, when arranging routes, the Secret Service needs to ensure that the route is no more than 10 minutes away from the trauma treatment center and carry a bag of the president's blood in case of emergency.
For former presidents who have ended their terms, the Secret Service's security may be weakened, but it should not be taken lightly.
Reporter and White House author Ronald Kessler said that when Bush Jr. left office, the threat level was so serious that about 75 agents took turns to protect him and his wife Laura around the clock.
"Usually, former presidents who have recently left office will be accompanied by four agents when they go out." Kessler said. "Protection is 24 hours a day, and (the agents) need three shifts and rest days, so the total number of agents is a lot."
But unlike the mandatory protection imposed on the president, the former president has the right to refuse protection. For example, in 1985, former President Nixon canceled lifetime protection and subsequently hired a private bodyguard, making him the first and so far the only former president to cancel the protection of the Secret Service.
Trump's case is different.
Tim Miller, a former Secret Service agent, said, "Bush Jr. went to the ranch and his father went to Kennebunkport. Since then, their lives have been relatively unknown. This is not the case with former President Trump." He said that Trump is an "outlier" in the history of the Secret Service because he is not only a former president, but also a current presidential candidate.
According to media reports, in most of Trump's campaign events, local police will assist the Secret Service in ensuring the security of the venue. Agents from other agencies of the Department of Homeland Security, such as the Transportation Security Administration, occasionally provide assistance.
Before the event, agents will check the venue for bombs or other threats, and the Secret Service will usually block the entrance a few hours before Trump starts speaking. Law enforcement officers usually set up barriers as a cordon. Participants can only bring small bags and pass through metal detectors to enter.
At the rally where Trump was attacked, there were no police officers in the building where the gunman was located, and the building was outside the security cordon. Some media reported that witnesses had warned nearby police that he saw a gunman climbing onto the roof, but the police "didn't know what happened" and did not take immediate action.
Guglielmi said: "The Secret Service has designated the roof as the jurisdiction of local law enforcement agencies." Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said, "They (Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies) had a meeting the week before. The Secret Service is responsible for arranging everything and designating who does what."
Goldinger said: "In the command hierarchy, they are the top, the number one person."
In recent years, the Secret Service has been involved in several scandals, raising concerns about its ability to perform protection tasks.
In 2012, while accompanying incumbent President Obama to the Summit of the Americas in Colombia, at least 11 Secret Service agents, including snipers and bomb disposal experts, were suspected of drunkenly soliciting prostitutes; in 2014, an injured veteran jumped over the White House fence and bypassed dozens of armed Secret Service officers to enter the White House; in 2021, an agent posted comments on social media, accusing the congressman who officially announced Biden's victory of treason...
A 2021 study by the National Academy of Administration (NAPA) showed that the job satisfaction and employee engagement of employees in the uniformed police department responsible for guarding the White House were at "worrying risk levels." The report stated, "For most officers, long hours and repetitive work have become a chore, and many officers encountered in this study face burnout."
But in other aspects, the Secret Service does not seem to have too many obstacles.
Although the funds used by the Secret Service for Protective Operations usually vary greatly, that is, they will surge in each presidential election year and decline the following year, it is undeniable that this year the Secret Service has the highest amount of money at its disposal ever - the total budget of the Secret Service in fiscal year 2024 is 3.28 billion US dollars, an increase of 6.1% over the actual spending last year.
Specifically, the department's budget for protective operations this year is 1.38 billion US dollars, an increase of 18.9% over the actual spending last year. Among them, this year's budget for "presidential campaigns" and "national special security events" is about 210 million US dollars, while in 2020, which was also an election year, the actual spending on this project was less than 160 million US dollars.
In terms of workload, in fiscal year 2023, the Secret Service was responsible for protecting 33 people, including the president and vice president, and supported them on more than 5,200 domestic and international visits, a figure that was 18.8% lower than the level before the epidemic in 2019.
Regarding the attack on Trump, Anthony Cangelosi, a former Secret Service agent who was responsible for protecting presidential candidates and is currently a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said, "I don't like to make any assumptions, but it seems that some mistakes were made, and these mistakes could have been avoided."
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