US Secret Service Missed 102 Warnings Before Trump Assassination Attempt in Pennsylvania

A report by the US Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General revealed that the Secret Service missed 102 warnings about the identity of the shooter targeting Donald Trump at a July 2024 rally in Pennsylvania. The failure was attributed to the absence of a joint communication center with local law enforcement in Butler, Pennsylvania. Instead of receiving numerous alerts, the Secret Service only got five phone calls and three messages about the suspect, Thomas Crooks, who later opened fire from a rooftop with a direct line of sight to Trump. Crooks was shot dead by authorities on the spot.

The report also uncovered that Crooks flew a drone over the area hours before the shooting, but the Secret Service's drone detection system failed to identify it. The system was operated by a single untrained operator while Crooks flew the drone undetected for nearly nine minutes. The Inspector General's recommendations focus on improving information sharing and addressing "line-of-sight vulnerabilities" before such events.

The Secret Service accepted the recommendations, stating many had already been identified and implemented. Kimberly Cheatle, then head of the Secret Service, resigned shortly after the assassination attempt, calling it the agency's "greatest operational failure in decades."

This assassination attempt was the first of three targeting Trump within a short period around his 2024 reelection. The second occurred in September 2024 outside his Florida golf club, where an armed assailant came within a few hundred meters of Trump, renewing criticism of the Secret Service. The third happened in April in Washington during a White House press event at the Hilton Hotel, where gunfire outside forced about 20 Secret Service agents to evacuate Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and the Vice President from the stage. The shooter, armed with a hunting rifle, was positioned about 15 meters from the entrance near the metal detectors.