‘Not Enough’: Public Outrage as Only Six Agents Punished for Trump's Near-Death
The Secret Service suspended six agents for security failures during the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, prompting reforms to address leadership and coordination issues. The incident, which killed one and injured others, has fuelled public and congressional demands for accountability.
Nearly a year after the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, the US Secret Service has suspended six personnel without pay, facing intense scrutiny for security lapses. The attack, during a campaign rally, saw a bullet graze Trump’s ear, killed 50-year-old firefighter Corey Comperatore, and wounded two others before the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was neutralized by a Secret Service sniper. Deputy Director Matt Quinn, addressing the incident, told reporters, “We are laser focused on fixing the root cause of the problem,” defending the decision against terminations. He added, “We aren’t going to fire our way out of this. We’re going to focus on the root cause and fix the deficiencies that put us in that situation.”
The suspensions, ranging from 10 to 42 days without pay or benefits, were enacted in February 2025, with affected agents, including supervisors, a counter sniper, and a member of Trump’s detail, reassigned to restricted roles upon return. Quinn emphasized, “Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler. Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again.” The agency has since introduced reforms, including military-grade drones and mobile command posts to improve communication with local law enforcement, addressing prior coordination failures. A bipartisan House task force’s 180-page report in December 2024 deemed the incident “tragic and preventable,” citing “pre-existing issues in leadership and training” that led to assigning inexperienced agents critical roles and poor coordination with Butler County police, who had warned of insufficient manpower.
The Butler attack, followed by a thwarted attempt in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September 2024, led to the resignation of then-Director Kimberly Cheatle and sparked congressional hearings. Social media posts on X reflected public outrage, with one user stating, “Six suspensions aren’t enough, our president was nearly killed!” The Secret Service’s reforms aim to prevent future failures amid a heightened threat environment, with ongoing investigations into Crooks’s motives, which remain unclear despite FBI probes finding no Iranian link, despite earlier intelligence.