Assassination Attempt on Former President Trump: Any Lessons Learned?
As the author of the book, The Protected, and someone who served in the arena of close protection professionals for more than 30 years, I hesitated to respond too quickly to the recent attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump while more details surfaced. On Monday, the Director of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) sat before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee to answer a barrage of difficult questions behind the actions (or lack thereof) of this attack and vowed to remain in her position.
Today, as I finished my thoughts on this editorial, the Director of USSS submitted her resignation. Now that the proverbial “smoke has cleared,” the question will always be, “Are there any lessons learned from this attack on a former U.S. President and second-time Republican Presidential nominee?”
I feel it is important to pause briefly and collect critical information before drawing too many conclusions, but in this case, the USSS doesn’t have this luxury of time. Changes must occur within minutes, hours and now days in their organization, as they are entrusted with some of the most important responsibilities in our country, which are protecting the President and Vice President of our nation (and others) who lead our country and ensure our democracy as a republic continues uninterrupted.
The collection and analysis of the evidence in this attack will include:
microscopic details
personal interviews
reviews of timelines
communications
resource availability
analysis of protective intelligence
video/still footage to document actions (or the lack of actions) before, during and after the attack.
Most importantly, a review of current USSS protocols and resources applied for this event will highlight the immediate changes required to ensure no other similar attacks can occur.
Fortunately, today’s world has provided everyone with a camera at all times, which will contribute to the volume of after-action analysis necessary to reveal how this scenario played out. No doubt it will be critical to adjust security protocols to address this stunning gap in coverage. As the finger-pointing continues between agencies, the bottom line up front (BLUF), will go down as a failure to protect and will reveal that the shooter should never have been able to gain access to that adjacent high-ground rooftop, let alone take a shot at the former U.S. President.
I have a lot of respect for the men and women of USSS. I served many years as a Special Agent with the CIA on the protective detail for the CIA Director, and then in the profession in the private sector for other high-profile individuals, so I might be somewhat biased towards those in the industry of close protection who do their best to protect others. I do not believe there was intentional omission of best practice protocols in this case and I will not comment on the myriad conspiracy theories. However, and without a doubt, critical mistakes were made that day which cost a beloved husband and father his life, and injured not only Trump but two other attendees.
Another question in this attack will always be, “Why did it take so long to act with so many red flags waving vigorously prior to the crack of the bullet and seeing blood on Trump’s head?”
There will be critical evaluations of the USSS and supporting local officers regarding the actions taken in the minutes and seconds before the first shot was fired. These will include the lack of communication to his inner team and their reaction time and the specific attack on principal (AOP) protocols by the USSS to ensure their principal was not hit or further injured.
The principal also has a role in their own AOP procedures to completely cooperate in these situations and allow their team to effectively cover and evacuate them rapidly to a secure location and not continue to expose themselves to possible additional attackers. Many of us can recall the day President Reagan was shot, where his USSS agents were credited with saving his life by placing themselves between him and the threat, but he too was still shot while entering his armored vehicle. We should not lose sight of the same level of dedication Trump’s agents closest to him and the USSS technician (counter-sniper) showed on that day to save his life.
However, the amount of time it took to get Trump to a higher level of security and off the X (spot of the attack) will be another element that will fall under heavy scrutiny. When your job plays out on global television and can be immediately evaluated, each move is analyzed in milliseconds and dissected image by image, decision by decision. Hindsight is valuable tool.
Today, we have to be aware of the fact that our constant, repetitive and detailed news coverage can be a motivational trigger for troubled individuals. Because of the fractures in our society during these politically-charged times as well as the time during and after COVID lockdowns, many individuals have developed anxiety and stress disorders, compounded by lack of social support and no doubt school and/or online bullying and as well as other mental health issues.
As I wrote in The Protected, identifying the profile of a possible assassin is incredibly difficult in today’s world. While all assassinations are considered murder, not all murders are assassinations. Defining the motivation for committing an assassination (usually a considered effort) may be very obvious from the beginning or may be totally hidden from others for years. We may truly never know what was in this young man’s head at the time of his calculated attempt to take this shot and cement his name in history, whether it was as his last act of misguided “revenge” on life or a just a desperate and deadly need for attention.
Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the family and friends of Cory Comperatore, who was murdered while protecting his family. We also are praying for a full recovery for the two individuals seriously wounded that day.
Fortunately for Donald Trump, this wasn’t a well-planned attack where a trained sniper or several assassins with a multipronged attack plan was unleashed, as this day would have had a totally different outcome. It is my opinion this is still a very real ongoing threat for this former President and maybe other officials in our supercharged political climate right now, which includes certain nation-state bad actors.
Another question in this attack will always be, “Why did it take so long to act with so many red flags waving vigorously prior to the crack of the bullet and seeing blood on Trump’s head?”
And it seems this is how these unfortunate events keep playing out, whether attempted assassinations, school shooters or mass casualty events. They are often executed by lone wolf attackers, unsuspected, blending with crowds and not standing out as “murderers.” We don’t suspect someone so innocuous and quiet, but they may be seemingly “troubled” or “different.” They often don't raise red flags until it’s too late, but their suffering in the silence of their tormented minds sets them on a deadly path. And if they have decided to sacrifice their existence on earth to make their mark and a statement of their pain and they want others to suffer as well, these attitudes make them very deadly and challenging adversaries.
The jobs of the USSS are extremely difficult – they require a lot of human emotional intelligence and physical reactions that then require split-second decisions, which can mean the difference between life and death. That’s some serious job stress. Not unlike firefighters and our police officers, they may go a long time between perhaps ‘nothing is happening’ and now ‘everything is critical.’ And no one is perfect.
We don’t like when it happens, but sometimes the bad guys win, but it’s still our jobs as close protection professionals and police officers to ensure we don’t allow the bad guys to get the upper hand and must constantly be reviewing our protocols, improving our tactics, equipment, procedures and all that is involved with protecting someone like the President and other key officials.
As just an everyday example, we all want our favorite sports team to win, every single game, and every season year after year, but this too can prove to be impossible. Even with all the training, the best equipment, millions of supporting dollars, recruiting the best of the best, amazing coaches, and even a home field advantage, champions can fail. When this happens to close protection professionals, it’s personal to those who are prepared to exchange their own lives to save another, unlike a professional athlete.
Sadly, we all have to keep being reminded these days that large events are attractive to active violence and shooters. Fortunately for Trump, this shooter’s poorly-planned, unstructured attempt to assassinate our former U.S. President was unsuccessful in changing the course of American political history.
To answer the question I asked in the beginning, I feel this attempted assassination will NOT necessarily go down as an event with many lessons learned because, unfortunately, we have decades of previous similar lessons learned that were simply not applied on this day to prevent this attack.
We can do better,
Mike
