A gunman from California managed to get within breathing distance of the President and the cream of American politics, exposing critical gaps in Secret Service protocols.
Despite the draconian measures put in place after the 2024 assassination attempts, the attack on the Washington Hilton Hotel proves that “traditional” venues are now the biggest threat. With the administration on high alert, talk of isolating the President in a new, secret room in the White House is heating up again.
There are still vulnerabilities
Now US law enforcement officials are reassessing the security arrangements. Two former Secret Service agents and three senior US officials told Reuters on Sunday that Saturday night, stopping the alleged gunman before he reached the basement level of the Washington Hilton, where Trump was scheduled to speak.
But the fact that some were in attendance underscored the vulnerabilities, officials said, even after a pair of assassination attempts against Trump during the 2024 campaign had already prompted stronger measures around the president’s security.
In the microscope the expansion of the perimeter
The most obvious lesson from the incident, former officials said, is that security personnel may need to expand the protective perimeter around the president in large public spaces, even if doing so causes public inconvenience.
Some officials noted that the security perimeter at Trump rallies is often much more extensive than the one set up Saturday night.
At Saturday’s dinner, guests had to pass through metal detectors to enter the ballroom, but only needed one ticket to gain access to the hotel itself.
Several people tried to get in using last year’s ticket, according to a person familiar with the planning of the event. Officials said the California man, who allegedly ran past security armed with multiple weapons, appeared to skip even that basic step by checking into the hotel in the days leading up to the event.
Coordination and removal of officials
Bill Gage, a former member of the Secret Service’s Counter Strike Team, said reviews after the incident will focus on pushing the metal detectors further out to expand the outer perimeter. He added that the Secret Service “will have to find a way to better secure large hotels, which can be inconvenient for the occupants and the hotel itself.”
He also emphasized that the Service must better coordinate the evacuation of other government officials. While Trump left the stage just 30 seconds after the last shots were fired, it took at least 100 seconds for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and about 150 seconds for Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
The perpetrator’s criticism
Among those who criticized the security stance at the event was the attacker himself, who in his manifesto published in the New York Post commented on how lax security seemed.
“, trapped rooms, armed agents every 10 feet, metal detectors everywhere,” wrote the man from California. “What I found (who knows, maybe I’m being pranked!) is nothing.”
Conservatives and officials, including acting Attorney General Todd Blanch, rushed to X to say the incident shows why Trump should move forward with building a ballroom on the White House grounds. One official noted that security for some cabinet members had already been increased when the war with Iran began in February.
