Even the assassin wonders "What the hell is the Secret Service doing there?"
Even the attacker wondered about the lax security: After the shooting at the gala dinner with US President Donald Trump in Washington, there's a lot of talk in security circles in the US.
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- A festive event with the US President turns into a scene of fear and panic in a matter of seconds.
- The incident has triggered a discussion about the reliability of the Secret Service, especially as there have already been several attempts to assassinate Trump in the past.
- The assassin criticized the security and made fun of the lack of security measures such as surveillance cameras or metal detectors.
"I can hardly believe how lax the security was tonight at the White House Correspondents' Dinner," wrote MAGA activist Kari Lake on the X platform. There was "virtually no security", she added later.
Lake is not the only one wondering. The assassin himself settled accounts with the Secret Service in a manifesto(which can be read in the New York Post). "I actually expected to find surveillance cameras on every corner, hotel rooms bugged, armed security guards every three meters and metal detectors a dime a dozen," he writes. He continues: "What I found (who knows, maybe they're just playing a trick on me!) was: nothing."
Secret Service criticized
Following the suspected assassination attempt on Donald Trump and other government officials, there is a controversial debate in the USA about how reliable the Secret Service still is. After all, this is not the first time that Trump has come under fire.
In the summer of 2024, the then presidential candidate narrowly escaped with his life when an assassin shot him at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania. One bullet slightly wounded him in the ear. One visitor died and two were injured. The perpetrator was killed by security forces.
In September of the same year, an assassination attempt was foiled near the Trump International Golf Club. An armed man was apprehended before the attack was carried out. Most recently, in February, a gunman was found and shot dead within the security zone of Trump's Florida residence Mar-a-Lago. According to newspaper reports, he was also planning an assassination attempt.
No one is interested in the assassin
The Secret Service is certainly not in a good light at the moment, even if many Republicans are trying to limit the damage. They say that the security concept worked. After all, the man was taken out before he even reached the ballroom.
"What the hell is the Secret Service doing there?" wondered the assassin Cole Allen. There had been no security precautions at all, neither during transportation, nor in the hotel, nor at the event.
"I walk in with several weapons, and not a single person there thinks it's possible that I could pose a threat." No one had apparently thought about what would happen if someone, like Allen, checked into the Hilton the day before.
The three highest representatives in one place
As the "Wall Street Journal" reported, citing unnamed sources, the government had not classified the event with the level of security that is usual for similar gatherings of high-ranking officials. This meant that the full resources were not called upon - although Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, among others, were present.
Particularly explosive: Mike Johnson, the Chairman of the House of Representatives, also took part. After Trump and Vance, he is in third place in the state ranking: for neutral observers, it is incomprehensible that the three highest representatives of a state are gathered in one place and are therefore potential targets for attack at the same time.
The influential Republican Senator Chuck Grassley wants to find out just how lax the security measures really were. He scheduled a hearing to find out from the Secret Service about the security concept.
Thwarting security with a room key
It is known that the perpetrator, heavily armed, was able to storm through a security post in the hotel where the metal detectors had already been dismantled. However, Secret Service employees were able to stop the man before he reached the event. We analyze here whether a technical failure was responsible for this.
A former FBI employee told the Wall Street Journal: "He [the assassin, ed.] didn't get past security on the night of the gala dinner. He overcame them on the day he made the reservation," said Jason Pack. Although a barrier had been erected to stop a whole army: "As it turned out, he only needed a room key to get past it."
In any case, the more important question is whether the traditional security precautions for major events are still sufficient in view of the heated political mood in the USA, said Charles Marino, a former high-ranking Secret Service official. The threat situation for Donald Trump and his administration is not comparable to previous administrations.
Minister of Justice is satisfied
For Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, however, the most important realization of the evening was "that the system worked. We stopped the suspect." Even if we must and will learn from the events.
Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, explained in the New York Times that the agency draws up a specific security plan for each event. Not every security measure is visible to visitors on site - which is the intention.
At the gala dinner on Saturday, the metal detectors were the outer edge of the security area. Police officers were posted immediately behind the security checkpoint to ensure that no one who was not supposed to get into the ballroom got through.
Inside the ballroom, on the other hand, Secret Service teams were positioned to be able to react quickly in the event of an emergency. And some agents were disguised as waiters to mingle inconspicuously with the guests while keeping an eye on the room.
The incident at the Hilton brought back dark memories of a bloody incident 45 years ago. At that time, an assassination attempt was made on then President Ronald Reagan, who survived seriously injured.
