As former President Donald Trump prepares to return to Pennsylvania, where he was shot during a rally in July, concerns are growing over security lapses at the US Secret Service (USSS).
What Trump plans to do is talk SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and the family of Firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was killed in the July shooting, will be appearing before voters in Butler, Pennsylvania, at 5 p.m. this evening. I plan to attend. The speech raised concerns about the former president’s safety. Specifically, more than a dozen current and former Secret Service personnel. said NBC News reported that the USSS is reaching “breaking point” amid staffing shortages and increased workload. (Related: ‘He was a hero’: Doctor who tried to save Corey Comperatore recalls assassination attempt as President Trump returns to office)
“The increased demands on government agencies in this dynamic threat environment are pushing our personnel to their limits,” USSS chief spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Saturday. said in a shared statement. “We know this is not sustainable and we cannot risk another mission failure.”
Top Shot – Republican candidate Donald Trump, with blood running down his face, is surrounded by Secret Service agents and removed from the stage at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show Company in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. (Photo: REBECCA DROKE/AFP) (Photo: REBECCA DROKE/AFP, Getty Images)
According to employment data the USSS shared with the DCNF, the USSS is struggling with staffing issues with attrition exceeding new hires, with 59 special agents and 59 special agents in fiscal years 2022 and 2023, respectively. There was a net loss of 60 government employees. However, the agency saw a significant hiring increase in fiscal year 2024, adding 186 special agents and 1,099 total employees, nearly double the total number of hires from the previous fiscal year.
Despite recent hiring increases, Trump’s return to Butler overlaps with the USSS’s “red line,” with staff forced to work overtime, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to NBC. It is said that it has been done.
“The U.S. Secret Service is killing our people, and to make matters worse, they are supposed to be on a foolproof protection mission with zero rest and no sleep,” a former intelligence officer was quoted as saying by the outlet. . “I love my office, but they are trying to set up a new case.”
The strain on Secret Service resources comes despite a sharp increase in the Secret Service’s budget, as the USSS is scheduled to receive an additional $231 million from Chairman Mike Johnson’s government funding bill. . The agency’s budget has increased by nearly $1 billion since 2014, but only $200 million of that has gone toward conservation efforts.
“I hate to say it, but they’re going to hit rock bottom very quickly,” a former Secret Service official told NBC.
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