Secret Service in spotlight after assassination attempt

Major questions are being asked of the Secret Service after Donald Trump was targeted by a lone gunman in an assassination attempt at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night.

- JUSTIN ROHRLICH ALEX ROSS

The former president was shot in the ear around 15 minutes after he took to the stage at the campaign event in Butler. He dropped to the floor and was swarmed by his security detail who rushed him off stage to a waiting motorcade. He could be seen raising his fist in the air and mouthing the words, “Fight, fight, fight.” He was later discharged from a local hospital and flew to New Jersey.

The former president thanked God for preventing the “unthinkable from happening” and said he would remain “defiant in the face of wickedness”. Yesterday morning, the FBI identified the “subject involved” in the attempted assassination as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He was shot dead by snipers at the scene.

As the investigation gets underway, serious questions are being asked of the Secret Service, whose job it is to provide former presidents with lifelong protection. Yesterday, Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, was forced to deny a claim that the Trump team had asked for additional security and were refused.

“There’s an untrue assertion that a member of the former president’s team requested additional security resources & that those were rebuffed. This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo,” Guglielmi posted on X, formerly Twitter.