Trump has had two attempts on his life come to fruition. Who knows how many more there are.
And now Secret Service’s hidden secret revealed and Donald Trump is furious.
U.S. Secret Service officials have allegedly blocked federal auditors from Donald Trump’s campaign events to hide the fact that “the former president is not receiving a consistent level of protective assets,” according to new whistleblower claims.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) revealed these serious accusations in a letter to Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe on Tuesday, demanding immediate clarification on whether the agency is deliberately obstructing an internal investigation into Trump’s security detail.
“The whistleblower alleges that the Secret Service denied access to [Department of Homeland Security] auditors because the former president is not receiving the full level of protective assets for all of his events, and Secret Service leadership wants to obscure or simply conceal this fact,” Hawley wrote.
The whistleblower claims that DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) auditors have only been permitted to inspect “select events,” including a recent Trump rally in Wilmington, NC. This raises concerns about transparency in Trump’s security arrangements.
Hawley also informed DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari about the allegations, warning that the auditors have only been exposed to the Secret Service’s top-tier agents from the Presidential Protection Division.
“As you continue to audit the agency’s programs and activities, you should be aware of these allegations, which indicate that the Secret Service is not in fact cooperating with your auditors and is instead painting a false picture,” Hawley added.
Despite these troubling reports, Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe had previously assured the public that Trump, 78, would receive the “highest levels” of security—on par with President Biden—following two assassination attempts against the former president.
Rowe took responsibility last month for a significant security failure at a July 13 rally in Butler, Pa., where Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet fired by would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks.
However, he denied any security lapses in a separate incident on Sept. 15, when Ryan Wesley Routh allegedly lay in wait with an SKS-style rifle at Trump’s West Palm Beach, Fla., golf club.
During the July 13 Butler rally, counter-snipers were deployed for the first time after higher-ups received a “credible intelligence” threat, but agents on the ground were left in the dark, according to a Senate committee report released last month.
Since the near-disaster in Butler, Sen. Hawley has made public multiple whistleblower allegations, many of which were corroborated in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee’s report.
In the West Palm Beach incident, a vigilant Secret Service agent spotted a rifle barrel while walking ahead of Trump on the golf course, prompting the agent to open fire and causing Routh to flee before firing any shots.
Routh, 58, who had flown from Hawaii to Florida via North Carolina, had written a note outlining his assassination plan and was later apprehended and indicted.
Rowe praised the quick actions of the advance agent during a Sept. 20 press conference in Washington, D.C. “That young man is a very young agent early in his career. His vigilance, his reaction is exactly how we trained and exactly what we want our personnel to do,” Rowe said.
Adding to the alarming nature of the situation, Routh had also self-published a manifesto calling on the Iranian regime to assassinate Trump. This manifesto surfaced shortly after a Pakistani national, allegedly acting on behalf of Tehran, was arrested on July 12 for attempting to hire hitmen to kill the former president.
In response to these growing threats, President Biden recently signed a law introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), which passed unanimously through Congress.
The legislation mandates uniform standards for determining the number of agents required to protect Presidents, Vice Presidents, and major candidates.
Trump returned to the Butler Farm Show grounds for another campaign event this past weekend, with an upgraded security presence. Whether or not these measures are enough to silence growing concerns over his protection remains to be seen.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
