The Security Failures of Trump’s Near-Assassination

Last year, news personalities like Dan Bongino and Tucker Carlson were slammed for suggesting a wild “conspiracy theory” that Donald Trump would be the focus of an assassination plot.

They suggested that the rhetoric about the former president had become so heated, with opponents using every means — legal or otherwise — to remove Trump from the political scene, that at some point, an attempt on his life might be considered the last solution.

On Saturday, July 13, the supposedly impossible happened.

At 6:12 pm, the first gunshots were fired at Donald Trump from a rooftop around 430 feet away. Trump grabbed his right ear and ducked behind his lectern while the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) covered him. Volleys were exchanged between the agents and the shooter until the shooter was eliminated.

If the gunman’s bullet hit just one inch to the right, Trump would have been killed instantly. The attack ultimately left one man dead who heroically protected his wife and daughter from the bullets, and two others wounded but in stable condition.

This particular assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, was not inevitable. A series of failures — from local law enforcement to the Secret Service to the federal government — all contributed to an attack that should never have happened.

As Donald Trump described it, “It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness.”

The ink is now dry, and American political history is forever changed.

The shooter was a 20-year-old male from Pennsylvania, described by his former high school classmates as “a loner who was bullied relentlessly and wore ‘hunting’ outfits often in class.” Another classmate said, “He never outwardly spoke about his political views or how much he hated Trump or anything.”

He was also apparently highly intelligent, having received a $500 National Math and Science Initiative Star Award the year he graduated from high school.

On President Biden’s inauguration day in January 2021, the shooter made a small donation to the Act Blue political action committee, which raises money for progressive Democrats. Though in September of that same year when he turned 18, he registered to vote as a Republican.

The shooter, who lived with his parents, used an AR-style rifle that reportedly belonged to his father. The FBI searched the family’s house and property, and found "suspicious devices" in the shooter’s vehicle that "have been rendered safe by bomb technicians and are being evaluated at the FBI Laboratory.”

Federal officials claimed the shooter was unknown to them and that he had no prior history of mental illness. He also appears to have acted alone.

His motive remains unknown, as his political views leave no clear indication of his hatred for former President Trump. He also does not appear to have left behind any written notes, and had very little social media presence.

The glaring failures that led up to the attack were truly shocking; eyewitnesses saw and took video of the shooter crawling on the roof where he shot from and alerted police several minutes ahead of time.

Local police nearly confronted the shooter but retreated after the shooter aimed his gun at the approaching officer. After this occurrence, no other steps were taken to deter the assassination, allowing the gunman to freely shoot at the former president.

Former Navy SEAL and founder of the private military group Blackwater, Erik Prince, said, “The fact that USSS allowed a rifle armed shooter within 150yds to a preplanned event is either malice or massive incompetence. Clearly there was adequate uncontrolled dead space for a shooter to move into position and take multiple aimed shots.”

The Secret Service completely neglected to secure the rally's perimeter, allowing the gunman to crawl onto a nearby roof in plain sight, and in extremely close proximity to Trump. These failures will inevitably be scrutinized by Congress, and many are already calling for USSS Director Kimberly Cheatle to lose her job.

Further, some of the female USSS agents were too small to fully cover Trump, leaving him vulnerable from above. More video reveals agents taking too long to get Donald Trump off stage and fumbling while trying to get him securely into the vehicle. One of the female agents was seen having trouble holstering her weapon, thus impeding her ability to secure the position.

Many have taken notice of the U.S. Secret Service’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in the wake of the attack, in particular the agency’s goal to hire 30 percent more women by 2030. Instead of allocating the strongest, most competent officers to guard the most high-profile individual alive, such DEI policies may have contributed to Trump not having the proper protection.

Donald Trump narrowly escaped with his life and now holds an elevated status with conservatives, drawing parallels with the once-shot Teddy Roosevelt: “I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”

The iconic photos taken of Trump are now a cemented part of American history and will define his candidacy as the nation swiftly heads for November.

However, echoes of the 1960s are also hard to ignore. The decade was plagued with political killings, from JFK to Martin Luther King Jr. to Robert F. Kennedy — even RFK’s assassin was assassinated. From a political and personal legacy standpoint, the former president may benefit, but fears of a violent political future loom in the shadow of Saturday’s rally.