The U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied requests for additional resources requested by Donald Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination, reports the Washington Post. Agents sought magnetometers and more agents to screen attendees at sporting events and other large public gatherings Trump attended, as well as more snipers and specialty teams at other outdoor events. The requests were sometimes denied by senior officials, who cited a lack of resources at an agency that has long struggled with staffing shortages. Those rejections led to long-standing tensions that pitted Trump, his top aides and his security detail against Secret Service leadership.
Agency veterans say the organization has been forced to make difficult decisions amid competing demands, a growing list of protectees and limited funding. Trump advisers’ anger deepened after an agency spokesman denied that any request for additional security lodged by Trump or his detail had been rejected. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who is under pressure to resign, repeated that denial in a meeting with Trump campaign leadership in Wisconsin last week. The tussle over safeguarding a former president who holds regular public events that draw large crowds raises new questions for the Secret Service, which has been plagued by staffing shortages and hiring limits since 2010 and suffered a series of embarrassing security lapses during the Obama and Trump administrations. The agency is responsible for security details for more than two dozen people, most of them requiring full-time security and a few others receiving “door-to-door” protection from the moment they leave their homes. After the Trump shooting, the agency added a protective detail to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate.