How Secret Service security has changed 2 years after Trump assassination attempt

Okay, so let's get to some headlines here. It has been two years since the attempted assassination on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. That event brought into question security concerns when it came to the Secret Service. So joining me this morning to discuss those changes made with the agency, Michael Verden, CEO of Lake Forest Group, a security consulting firm. It's so good to have you here. Thank you. All right, so let's talk a little bit about this. We know the reported Secret Service communication breakdowns that led to that 2024 shooting. What has changed for the Secret Service? What's been enhanced since then? Yeah, so it's been two years. So there were four reviews of the incident. The Secret Service did a review. Congress did a review. DHS did a review. And GAO, it's another government- It's a lot of reviews. A lot of reviews, yes. And what came out of it was a number of different things, one being their budget. So their budget was bumped by over $1 billion following that incident. Also, their budget this year was enhanced by $300 million. So financially, they've had upgrades. Manpower-wise, right now they have 3,200 agents. Within two years, they'll have 4,000 agents. Oh, wow. So, I mean, we're talking about that's a major boost. It's a 25% increase in manpower, yes. So let's talk a little bit. You mentioned a lot of different reports here. We've got the Senate Homeland Security report, a governmental affairs interim report. When it comes to this report here, what changes came from that? So one thing they saw, back to those reviews, is they want a person responsible for the security plan for an event. For Butler, it was kind of nebulous. They weren't sure who was responsible. So now there is a Secret Service supervisor who has to sign off on the security plan. That's one thing. Another big thing was what they call silo effect. They weren't sharing their plans. So what you had was this person on the rooftop, and local law enforcement saw it, but they couldn't talk to the Secret Service. So back to, you've mentioned communications. They weren't talking to each other. So another change is now they call it a security room, a unified security room. And anybody who's there from a law enforcement standpoint, state, local, federal, they're all in the same room, which was not the case two years ago. That's interesting that even just two years ago, there's been so many changes there, and they really weren't talking to one another. Wow. Okay. So the House Task Force, they also issued their recommendations as well. Can you talk about some of the changes made based on those findings? Yeah, and these are substantive changes. One thing is they have a brand new division. It's a aerospace division. So their aerial tactics and equipment is now part of their operations for outdoor events. They're also working with the military. They have drones now that they have DOD drone operators. Oh, wow. So this is pretty sophisticated. Also, they have mobile command vehicles back to the communications. So when you're at a rural event like Butler, they have their own vehicles to do with all the bells and whistles for communications. They also have, as part of this, we had that incident at a golf course. They now have hardened golf carts, which they didn't have before. So if there was some type of threat, they have these ballistic vehicles. I mean, if you had an event like this and you didn't make changes, I think that would be the problem. I think the process is to live and to learn and to do better. In your opinion, as an expert here, what do you think of these changes? Do you think this is enough to move forward? Yeah, I think it's absolutely in the right direction. Another thing that came out is the counter snipers. When a counter sniper sees somebody, there was no one to respond back to where that location was. Now it's mandatory. They have personnel on the ground to react if there's some type of person on the rooftop. Another thing too is the perimeter. He was 140 yards away at Butler. So now their perimeter is out to 1,000 yards. These Marine snipers that are in combat, they can shoot out over 1,000 yards. So the Secret Service changed their perimeter based on this incident. That's crazy. Okay, so we're talking about a lot of changes here. This is such an interesting conversation because not only are you talking about how could we have prevented this event, but how can we think ahead to all the other events in the future that may or may not happen? It comes down to three basic things. It comes back to the assessment, the preparation for the event. So that's the security plan. Then it's the actual implementation of the plan and sharing of the plan. They have different circles, like the outside circle could be local. The middle circle could be like the feds and the inner circles is actual, the president's detail, right? Also an emergency plan. When I reviewed the Butler video, it kind of looked like it was ad hoc. I wanna see like a specific plan, how they can manage an emergency. Trump was on stage too long, by the way, following the incident. Get to protect the off the stage and get them out of there. Okay, that's a great, interesting perspective. Thank you. So I'll have to see, hopefully this will help in the future. Michael, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate that.