These days, it seems like any protective service is needed more than ever. All over the world, leaders in positions of power need barricades and bodyguards to keep an angry mob from lunging at them 24/7. It feels like polarization is getting stronger, the gap between political perspectives is getting wider, and it’s going to bring trouble in the long run. And, on July 13 at 5:11 p.m., it seemed like that trouble had reached its peak, as eight shots rang through a stadium in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

The title of U.S. President is one of the important offices a person can take up in this country, maybe even in the whole world—a beacon of freedom and hope. America has invested copious amounts of money into various defense mechanisms, from a nuclear-resistant car— “The Beast” in the presidential motorcade—to retina scanning in the underground White House tunnel system, but by far their most frontline system of defense is the Secret Service. 

The Secret Service was originally founded in 1865 to combat counterfeit money that was circulating in the American economy after the Civil War. After three presidents were assassinated—the third being President William McKinley in 1901 at the Temple of Music in Buffalo New York, shot by an anarchist—people began waking up to the dangers that presidents faced with political extremism. Three presidents shot dead is three too much, after all. Thus, the Secret Service was repurposed to an all-round bodyguard service for the presidency, guarding them through all means necessary. 

So, when those shots were fired on July 13, during a Republican campaign, Donald Trump was nearly killed in an asassination attempt, did the Secret Service fail?

The Secret Service has been challenged by communication and corruption. In 2022, the Secret Service agents and another Homeland Security agent were caught taking expensive gifts as bribes from two people pretending to be federal agents. The asassination attempt where the potential president has ultimately brought this issue to a larger awareness, with some Secret Service members currently in court with failure in this specific incident, but these problems have always existed. There’s always gonna be someone willing to do it for the right price, and that’s not really something the government can control. 

Of course, it could also just be a genuine mistake. The court case currently in deliberation against agents of the Secret Service cites “multiple communication issues” as the main reason behind the shooting at Butler, but that doesn’t explain everything. The communication issue might explain why they didn’t hear them, but why didn’t they spot him in the first place? And how did he get up there? Patrols say they spotted him climbing up the building an hour before the rally, and no alarms were raised. 

Regardless, the failures span a lot farther than just communication to potential corruption. 

This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on November 4, 2024