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After the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month, the Secret Service temporarily shifted some personnel from President Joe Biden’s protective detail to guard his predecessor.
An official with the agency told The New York Times that reassigning members of a president’s detail to a candidate is unusual, but the switch was made after the increased threat of violence against Trump, and because of Biden’s more limited travel schedule since dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris. As another protective measure, the Secret Service has also obtained bulletproof glass to shield Trump during future outdoor rallies.
Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to climb onto a roof on July 13 and take aim at Trump from about 400 feet away as the former president delivered a campaign speech. A bullet grazed Trump’s ear, one rally attendee was killed, and two others were wounded. Both the FBI and Congress are investigating the incident.
The Secret Service has taken responsibility, and its former director, Kimberly Cheatle, was forced to resign in the aftermath. Even as the agency reckons with the most severe lapse in security for a president arguably since the assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan in 1981, the Secret Service has had to continue to protect about three dozen officials, both current and former, as well as their families.
Donald Mihalek, who retired from the agency in 2019, told the Times that Secret Service methodology “is made to be flexible ... and to address known, and unknown, threats. The steps the Secret Service is taking are a natural part of its asymmetrical approach to assure their no-fail mission is fulfilled.”
He added that he has previously seen members of the president’s team be reassigned for a temporary period, such as during United Nations events, noting that the Secret Service’s presidential protective division is used for top-level details. It includes hundreds of Secret Service staff who work in various security positions at the White House and travel with the president.
As for the glass to shield Trump, it’s uncommon for others than the sitting president and vice president to be protected using bulletproof glass as it’s heavy and difficult to move, officials told the Times. The glass is usually transported on military planes but in Trump’s case, the Secret Service will obtain several sets and store them across the country so that they can be taken by truck to any outdoor rally venues, as noted by ABC News.
While Trump appeared outside during his press conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Thursday, he hasn’t held an outdoor rally since the one in Butler.
