The United States Secret Service has failed to adapt to growing security risks and needs far-reaching reform, according to an independent review into the July assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Without such reform, future attacks are imminent, said the report, released Thursday by the Independent Review Panel and written by four former law enforcement officials.
Its findings come three months after former President Trump narrowly escaped being shot in the head at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, by a bullet that grazed his ear.
The near-miss exposed serious security gaps and led to heightened protection measures for Trump’s outdoor campaign rallies.
It also led to widespread criticism of the Secret Service, a federal agency that protects top political leaders and their families. Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned over what she said was a failure.
Two months after the Butler shooting, on September 15, the Secret Service foiled another alleged attempt on Trump’s life. Agents apprehended a gunman who had been hiding in shrubbery at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, with plans to kill him, according to prosecutors.
‘Complacent and static’
The review panel, which focused on the Secret Service’s handling of the Butler rally, said some of the agency’s flaws “appear to be systemic or cultural”, citing a lack of cohesion in security planning.
“The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved,” the panel wrote.
It issued a series of recommendations, including overhead surveillance for outdoor events with presidential candidates, a situation report at the time of protected individuals’ arrival and a communications hub with at least one representative from the Secret Service and each state and local law enforcement agency involved to coordinate their operations.
The panel called on the new measures to be put in place by the end of March and an evaluation by October 1.
If there is no fundamental reform, the review panel said it believed “another Butler can and will happen again”, it wrote.
Trump doubles down
This month, Trump returned to address a large crowd at Butler, where he said he felt “stronger, prouder … and nearer to victory than ever before”.
Trump is neck and neck in the polls with his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, with both candidates trying to win over undecided voters before the November 5 election.
On Wednesday night, Trump participated in a town hall in Miami with the Spanish-language TV station Univision, fielding questions from Latino voters, with whom he has made inroads.
During the event, Trump doubled down on baseless claims that Latin American countries were emptying their psychiatric institutions and jails to send people to the US and Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating pets.
“I was just saying what was reported,” Trump said.
