Washington– Federal law enforcement officials are evaluating how to proceed with some high-profile public events involving President Donald Trump after the presidential election Attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
The third violent attack on Trump’s periphery in less than two years renews the central tension facing the Republican president’s defenders: how to accommodate public demands for the presidency while minimizing the risk of an attack.
Saturday’s episode A man armed with guns and knives I tried Storming the ballroom at the Washington Hotel The president was scheduled to address the White House Correspondents’ Association, and comes ahead of Trump’s expected participation in a series of large, high-level events at home and abroad in the coming months. Among them, it is scheduled to celebrate the nation’s anniversary 250th anniversarysupervising the United States co-hosting World Cup And leading marches aimed at motivation Support Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles will hold a meeting this week with officials from the White House Operations Team, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security to discuss security protocol at events with the president, according to a senior White House official. The official, who insisted on anonymity to confirm private discussions, said the meeting will discuss the security steps that worked Saturday while “exploring additional options” for future events.
Separately, a person familiar with the matter said the US Secret Service was already reevaluating its security posture for the upcoming events. The agency’s profile has already been raised by the extraordinary number of threats facing Trump – including two successive assassination attempts in 2024 – and the reality of recent events such as the US-Iran war.
“I can’t imagine there’s any profession more dangerous,” Trump said of the presidency Saturday evening from the White House.
Within the Secret Service, protective intelligence agents and threat assessment teams are also reviewing threats against Trump in recent months. Copycat violence can follow high-profile attacks, according to the person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security planning.
The White House and Buckingham Palace said State visit of King Charles and Queen Camilla Monday goes ahead as planned. However, organizing around larger-scale events is deeper in the future – incl UFC match on the White House lawn On Trump’s 80th birthday in June, World Cup matches and IndyCar race The White House’s past – it could get more complicated.
Lawmakers, event attendees and some of the president’s allies saw fault with the security planning for the correspondents’ dinner, and questioned why someone like the shooter would book a hotel room to sneak weapons around the outer layer of security.
Texas Republican Representative Michael McCaul, honorary chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said security protocols for Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance may need to be changed.
“I think the Secret Service needs to reconsider having both the president and vice president together in something like this,” McCaul told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Lake CareyThe former Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona and Trump’s pick to lead the US Agency for Global Media complained that she did not have to show a photo ID to match her ticket to the event when entering the hotel for the Correspondents’ Dinner. “I can’t believe how lax security is,” Lake wrote on X.
The Secret Service is only charged with the safety of the people it protects, not the event itself, and the agency was immediately celebrated for its response, earning a high-profile endorsement from Trump himself.
“Our multi-layered protection is working,” director Sean Curran said Saturday.
“Those guys did a good job last night. They did a really good job,” Trump said Sunday in an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”
“The system appears to be working essentially as designed, amid the security trade-offs that are always necessary in a free society,” wrote Garrett Graf, author of Raven Rock: The Story of the US Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest Dies, in an analysis of the multiple layers of security surrounding Trump at the dinner.
Published by retired Secret Service Agent Thomas D. Quinn, who assisted the Secret Service’s leading counter-assault teams, told X that “WHCD’s Secret Service security plan worked and the assailant was stopped.” He continued: “As long as we are a free people in a freedom-loving nation, the responsibilities of the Secret Service will remain enormous.”
Ronald Kessler, author of “In the President’s Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents Who Protect Them,” said authorities would likely consider putting bulletproof glass around where Trump speaks outside and inside — not unlike what happened after the attempted assassination of Butler in Pennsylvania during the height of the 2024 presidential campaign.
Kessler said attendees will likely be screened more thoroughly from now on, worsening lines at entrances that can already take hours to clear. One example of what might happen came last fall, when Trump announced He attended the men’s final at the US Open The tennis tournament sparked extensive security lines.
Such incidents highlight the complex security issues surrounding presidential protection in a country where citizens expect their leaders to move in public, hold rallies, attend events and appear before crowds.
“Presidents don’t like to have a lot of protection,” Kessler said. “I think by nature they are very open. They want to meet people. They don’t want to be accused of being prisoners of the White House. So, they will try to circumvent some of these improvements.”
The Secret Service assumed overall responsibility for protecting the president during the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, who took office after an assassin killed William McKinley in 1901. However, Roosevelt found the constant security presence exhausting, and would sometimes escape on unprotected hikes or horseback rides in Washington’s Rock Creek Park, according to the White House Historical Association.
Kessler said security personnel wanted President Ronald Reagan to exit the building where Saturday night’s shooting occurred, the Washington Hilton Hotel, through a covered garage in 1981. However, Reagan’s staff were concerned that the optics would be bad, and the president was shot when he left an outdoor exit, ultimately escaping.
After the shooting on Saturday, Trump was surrounded by Secret Service agents, who appeared to slip slightly as he was being carried away. Another team moved Vance so quickly it looked as if they might drag him out while he was still sitting in the banquet chair.
Trump told 60 Minutes on Sunday that he was “not making things easy” for the Secret Service by being “a little bit me.”
“I wanted to see what was happening,” the president said Sunday. “By then we were starting to realize that maybe it was a bad problem — a different kind of problem — a bad problem.”
“Maybe I made them act a little slower. I said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me see. Wait a minute,'” Trump said. He said he started to get out but, “They said, ‘Please get down. Please get down.’ So I got down, and the first lady got down, too.”
Trump repeatedly praised the Secret Service and its details, and pushed the Correspondents’ Association to reschedule the dinner. He said it would have “more security.”
“And they will have greater security in their surroundings,” he said. “It’ll be fine.”
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Associated Press writers Seung-Min Kim in Washington and Mike Balsamo in New York contributed.