(DailyChive.com) – An independent commission has found that multiple mistakes by the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) allowed for an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The bipartisan panel of former law enforcement and government officials warned that without immediate changes, another incident like this could easily happen again.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the panel criticized the Secret Service, calling it “complacent, bureaucratic, and static”. They emphasized that the agency needs major reforms to prevent similar failures in the future. “Without real change,” the panel wrote, “another Butler is not just possible—it’s likely.”
The commission’s report highlighted several breakdowns in security on the day of the rally. Trump’s security team was never alerted about a suspicious individual, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who had been acting strangely before the event. Even worse, Crooks managed to crawl onto a nearby roof just before the former president took the stage. From there, Crooks fired eight shots, one of which grazed Trump’s ear, before being taken down by a Secret Service sniper.
USSS acting director Ronald Rowe responded to the report, telling NBC News that the agency has already started making both policy and operational changes since the July 13 attack. “We’re not waiting around for reports to tell us what went wrong,” Rowe said. “We’ve begun implementing changes to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”
However, just two months later, another breach occurred. On September 15, a man named Ryan Routh managed to sneak onto Trump’s golf course hours before the former president arrived to play. This incident further raised concerns about the agency’s ability to protect high-profile figures effectively.
The panel’s investigation was thorough. It included 58 interviews with federal and state officials and the review of over 7,000 documents. The team also traveled to Butler to examine the rally site in person. Their findings pointed to “deep flaws” within the Secret Service, including cultural problems and a lack of critical thinking among its staff. They also noted that agents were often reluctant to report concerns or take action when potential threats emerged.
The commission stressed that the agency must move quickly to implement reforms, warning that even unlimited funding wouldn’t be enough to fix the deeper issues uncovered by their investigation.
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