Secret Service under intense scrutiny after Trump rally shooting

While the investigation is still in its early stages, law enforcement experts told Business Insider that the historic shooting will undoubtedly prompt a major overhaul of Secret Service procedures.

Matt Shoemaker, a former intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, went so far as to call the shooting a “major failure” by the Secret Service.

“I’ve been to these types of events before and there are layers of security,” Shoemaker said, “so it’s incredible that the alleged shooter was on the roof, in easy reach of the podium, and went unnoticed.”

Kenneth Valentine, a former Secret Service special agent who served under three presidents, agreed.

“There needs to be a full investigation into how anyone was able to get ammunition into a high-security venue,” Valentine told Business Insider. “When a protected person is escorted from an event bleeding from a gunshot wound, the word failure is being talked about. They need to take their responsibility seriously and think about what they can do differently and better.”

Trump said in a Truth Social post hours after the 6:15 pm shooting that a bullet had hit him above his right ear. Video of the shooting shows the former president holding his hands to his bloody face, then pumping his fist in triumph as he is escorted off the stage by Secret Service agents.

A Secret Service spokesperson referred Business Insider to official statements posted by the federal agency on social media and declined to answer specific questions about the incident.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote in a post on X that the suspect “fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside” at the venue of former President Trump’s rally.

“The U.S. Secret Service immediately took protective measures and the former president is safe and undergoing screening,” Guglielmi said in a statement, noting the FBI had also been notified about the shooting.

In a separate statement, the FBI said it intended to lead the investigation. An FBI representative did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

At a press conference just after midnight, FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek said it was “astonishing” that the gunman fired several shots before being subdued by Secret Service agents.

Amid the increased attention on the Secret Service, Guglielmi denied rumors that the agency had rejected a request from the Trump campaign for additional security resources.

“The allegation that members of the former president’s team requested additional security resources and were denied them is untrue,” Guglielmi said. statementThe message shared with X on Sunday said: “This is completely false. In fact, we have added protective resources, technology and capabilities as part of an accelerated pace of campaign travel.”

Representatives of the Secret Service did not attend the press conference and did not answer questions about the incident.

Shoemaker told BI that the gunman’s presence appears to have been “overlooked,” despite first-hand reports from witnesses who said they saw a man with a rifle on a rooftop near the rally and attempted to call authorities.

“Maybe they weren’t paying much attention. Maybe they were taking it seriously, but there just wasn’t enough time before the shots rang,” Shoemaker said. “But the fact that the shots rang – the only thing saving the Secret Service right now is the fact that President Trump wasn’t killed – means that they were relying purely on luck that the person they were supposed to be protecting wasn’t killed. If they’re relying on luck, that means there’s a problem, that there’s a failure somewhere.”

Shoemaker was not alone in assessing that the shooting would prompt a thorough review of Secret Service policies and procedures.

Valentine told Business Insider that the investigation will likely uncover failures to adhere to established security and communications protocols, noting that he believes the Secret Service already made mistakes before the gunman reached the roof of a nearby building and opened fire.

“This method has worked for a long time and is very effective,” Valentine said. “My question is, were the methods and the procedures for implementing them still in place yesterday? I think the investigation will find that out.”

Ken Gray, a former FBI agent and lecturer at the University of New Haven’s School of Criminal Justice, told Business Insider that given the fact that the shooter was rallying outside of a secured perimeter, future gatherings may need to “expand the secured perimeter or move indoors.”

But Gray said it was “too early to assess” whether the incident should be considered a complete security failure, especially given the proliferation of unconfirmed reports about the shooting online.

The day after the shooting, criticism of the Secret Service’s ability to protect Trump continued to circulate online.

One of the most high-profile critics was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who publicly endorsed Trump for the first time since the incident, in a series of posts in which he harshly criticized Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who was head of security for the soft drink company Pepsi before taking the role.

“Prior to guarding the President, she was guarding bags of Cheetos…” Musk said in X’s post, along with screenshots of her biography and work history.

The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have indicated the party’s convention scheduled for this week in Milwaukee will go on as scheduled in the wake of the shooting at the rally, though it is unclear whether any changes will be made to security procedures for the event.

Investigations and more visible security measures

Shoemaker said he expects to see bulletproof glass surrounding former presidents’ public appearances in the future, and that drones will be used more extensively for aerial surveillance of events.

“We expect that at least some initial findings will be released within the next 48 to 72 hours,” Shoemaker said. “If it takes longer than that, it’s going to raise a lot of questions as to what went wrong. Is the issue that we don’t have enough expertise to look into this issue?”

Valentine isn’t sure if the investigation will be concluded anytime soon, telling Business Insider that while there is strong pressure on the FBI to quickly uncover the cause of the security failures, he expects the investigation to be “slow and methodical.”

“All radio communications are recorded and are all subject to investigation,” Valentine said. “It has to be very transparent. I honestly don’t think this is something that would be difficult to investigate. It should be immediately clear what happened point by point so we can determine what caused it, who should be held accountable, who should be held accountable.”

Valentine said he expects Secret Service agents to adhere more closely to established security protocols going forward, but he expects to see Trump appear at more outdoor events soon, despite the risks.

Valentine added that his remaining Secret Service colleagues had expressed “frustration” in the wake of the deadly shooting. He blamed the failures entirely on the “Secret Service,” but stressed that the small agency often lacks sufficient resources to manage the high-profile risks it must address appropriately, and that employees take the failures personally.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson posted on X that the House would investigate the “tragic events” that took place at the rally.

“The American people have a right to know the truth,” Johnson wrote. “We will promptly have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and appropriate officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation appear at a committee hearing.”