The Secret Service has its hands full combating an unprecedented level of political threats, an issue underscored in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
While the Secret Service is initiating a series of changes to bolster its security practices following two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump last year, the agency is now operating at an extremely heightened state amid an unprecedented level of threats, according to experts.
‘The Secret Service now has to play at a level of enhanced security that they’ve never dreamed of before. I think [Secret Service Director Sean Curran] is doing a good job in leading that effort,’ Tim Miller, who served as a Secret Service agent during Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton’s administrations, told Fox News Digital on Thursday. ‘But here’s the bad news for the Secret Service: They don’t have time. This threat is now. Can you imagine – they already shot our president once. Can you imagine if they’re able to kill him?’
Kirk, 31, died after he was shot in the neck during his ‘American Comeback Tour’ at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. The assassination comes a year after two attempts to take the president’s life.
Twenty-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump from a rooftop during a campaign rally in July 2024, and one of the eight bullets shot grazed Trump’s ear. The gunman also shot and killed Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, father and husband attending the rally, and injured two others.
Likewise, Ryan Routh was apprehended and charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September 2024. Routh was charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, among other things, and his trial kicked off on Thursday.
Both assassination attempts against Trump are under investigation.
Bill Gage, who served as a Secret Service special agent during Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama’s administrations, said that even though the agency didn’t provide security during the Kirk event, it would conduct a review of the assassination like it does for others all over the world. As a result, the agency would perhaps consider enhancing smaller security details for members of Trump’s family, like the president’s son Barron, in response to Kirk’s death, Gage said.
‘I think they will probably be taking another look at probably beefing up those smaller details that sometimes might only have two, maybe three agents on it, okay?’ Gage told Fox News Digital on Thursday. ‘And so once again, it’s going to increase that pressure where the agency’s already stretched thin.’
Miller, who now heads up Lionheart International Services Group, which provides security support and training, said that Kirk’s assassination was not a ‘one-off’ incident, and that the agency should adopt a similar mindset to the Department of Defense to train up warfighters.
‘The Secret Service should be the biggest, baddest, meanest people on the planet,’ Miller said. ‘They ought to have the experience and a skill to where, when it goes bad, there’s none better.’
Miller has previously described the attack in Butler to Fox News Digital as a ‘wake-up call’ for Secret Service, and noted that the incident served as the impetus for reform within the agency.
A bipartisan House task force that investigated the attack found that the attempted assassination was ‘preventable,’ and concluded multiple mistakes were not isolated incidents.
Former Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe told lawmakers in December 2024 that immediate changes to the agency following Butler, Pennsylvania, included expanding the use of drones for surveillance purposes, and also incorporating greater counter-drone technology to mitigate kinetic attacks from other drones.
The agency also overhauled its radio communications networks and interoperability of those networks with Secret Service personnel, and state and local law enforcement officers, Rowe said.
Although Miller said the Secret Service is working hard to implement changes, he said he worries it might not be fast enough to keep up with threats the president faces. Additionally, he said that in light of Kirk’s assassination and the attempts against Trump last year, there is additional pressure on the agency to sharpen its skills.
‘After yesterday, I am sure every Secret Service agent recognizes that every day that they go to work could be the day,’ Miller said.
The Secret Service extended its condolences to the Kirk family, but declined to comment on any specific changes to Trump’s security detail.
‘President Trump receives the highest levels of U.S. Secret Service protection and the agency adjusts our protective posture as needed to mitigate evolving threats,’ a Secret Service spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Thursday. ‘Out of concern for operational security, we cannot discuss the means and methods used for our protective operations.’