The attempted assassination of Donald Trump was by no means the first failure of the Secret Service
The book Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service helps put the attempt on Donald Trump’s life in context. Author Carol Leoning chronicled outrageous failures, starting with agents drinking until 3:00 a.m. the night before the Kennedy assassination.
Many other failures have been nearly fatal, and others are just low-grade corruption, such as the disappearance of expensive speakers from White House sentry posts, which likely ended up in agents’ homes.
I’ve worked on most Canadian forces’ bases, with UN peacekeepers, and for cops in Canada, the U.S., and Hong Kong. I’ve provided “close personal support” (bodyguards) for clients.
My observations:
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- The gunman having a clear shot at Trump is worse than Lee Harvey Oswald opening a window in the Texas School Book Depository and shooting President Kennedy.
- I’ve stood on a secure balcony in Washington and noted that I could not be seen from any building on Pennsylvania Avenue. The no-brainer is – if you can see a window or roof, someone there can shoot you.
- The few strides that most agents used to run up to the president were time enough for more shots to be fired. The president owes his life to a poor shot, not the Secret Service. Agents should have been closer and pushed Trump to the ground immediately.
- When the president got up, agents were slow and distracted. Agents raised their arms in a borderline ridiculous attempt to shield Trump. I’ve worn a bulletproof vest that will stop small-calibre bullets, which is a lot more protection than an agent’s arm or hand. What was required was a human shield of agents in vests and a fast exit off the stage.
- I’ve worked on G7 meetings that U.S. Presidents have attended. Agents think nothing of turning to a sitting president, pointing an accusatory finger, raising voices, and admonishing the president for violating security protocol. Agents in the Trump case let him linger on stage, raise his fist, and continue working the crowd.
- A former agent praised his colleagues on TV for handling the immediate threat but implied that they didn’t address the root cause of the incident. This suggests that the agents focused on securing Trump by jumping on top of him rather than neutralizing the shooter. If the shooter had continued to be active, he could have fired through the agents, potentially harming Trump. This highlights a possible oversight in prioritizing immediate protection over eliminating the ongoing threat.
- Close protection specialists always assume there is more than one assailant. The second you think you’ve dealt with shooter No. 1, you turn to deal with No. 2, wherever he may be.
- My colleague, the late Gen. Ron Cheriton, who worked on Canada’s counter-terrorism task force, used to joke that when he saw several law enforcement agencies involved, he knew no one was in charge. In this case, the Secret Service was in charge inside the event, and other agencies were outside. You know the result.
Dr. Allan Bonner was the first North American and only Canadian to earn an MSc in Risk, Crisis, and Disaster Management from the only university in the world offering full graduate courses in the field – Leicester in the UK. He has worked on some of the most challenging issues of our times – Hong Kong’s return to China, European Union, for NATO, UN agencies, the WTO, the Taser Project, and many others.
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