In the days after a gunman nearly killed former President Donald Trump, scrutiny of the Secret Service has focused on the failure to secure the rooftop where the shooter took up a sniper position.
But what happened after a bullet nicked Trump’s ear was also galling, according to former Secret Service agents and experts in protecting prominent figures. While Trump’s detail performed well in quickly converging on him when the bullets began flying, they say, the agents’ actions in the immediate aftermath were contrary to the most basic protocols — and they put Trump’s life at unnecessary risk.
These experts fault the Secret Service detail for failing to adequately shield him and rush him off the stage to safety. Some suggested that the agents were too deferential as he asked to put on his shoes and paused to pump his fist in the air. If a second gunman had been at the rally, experts noted, he could have shot Trump.
“They stayed on that stage for over a minute,” said Richard Aitch, a U.K. close protection expert and former member of the Royal Military Police. “What on Earth were they doing? It was shocking.”
Aitch noted that the agents were trying to cover Trump with their bodies but said that would be ineffective against rifle bullets.
“The moment you know you are getting incoming rounds, you grab hold on to that boss and you throw him into a car and you get out of there as quickly as you can with the maximum amount of aggression,” he said.
Chris Story, a consultant who has worked for 25 years in close protection, including for the State Department, said that as for what actually happened when Trump was shot, “I’ve seen sixth graders do better rugby scrums than the protective formation they used.”
“They did a really good job in covering, but after that, there was no movement,” he said.
Trump’s protective detail agents can be heard on video urging him to go with them before he says, “Let me get my shoes.” The agents pause, making no effort to force Trump to move.
Then, as the huddled group begins to shuffle, Trump pauses again and says, “Wait, wait, wait.”
He then raises his fist to the crowd as several seconds pass. Only then does the group move to a waiting limousine.
A spokesperson for the Secret Service would not comment on the agency’s methods and said all of its agents were highly trained.
"We cannot comment on matters related to an ongoing investigation at this time," the spokesperson said. "We of course are committed to working with the appropriate and relevant investigations of what happened on July 13.”
An official briefed on the Secret Service response told NBC News that the agents were told in their earpieces that the threat had been mitigated, which is consistent with what can be heard on video, with agents shouting “shooter down” and “we’re good.”
But experts say that the agents had no way of knowing there were not multiple shooters and that their training dictates that they should act as if there are.
Some former Secret Service agents have defended the response.
Paul Eckloff — who served in the agency for 22 years, including as assistant special agent in charge for the presidential protective division under Trump and President Barack Obama — praised how the agents rushed to Trump.
“What you saw ... was muscle memory,” he said. “That’s why the agents stormed the stage and collapsed onto the former president. It’s called an attack on a principal. They are practiced over and over and over and over again at the training facility for this specific scenario.”
In a post on LinkedIn responding to Story’s criticisms, Eckloff wrote, “Calling the response of the agents and officers on the ground as anything but well executed in the seconds they were accomplished is disingenuous at best, and dangerous at worst.”
Eckloff cited an axiom about tactical environments: “slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” He said there can be good reasons to pause, such as allowing additional agents to clear and secure the route to the vehicle.
Anthony Cangelosi, a former Secret Service agent who worked on protective details for presidential candidates, including John Kerry in 2004, also defended the agents.
“Was it a textbook response? It absolutely wasn’t,” said Cangelosi, an adjunct professor at John Jay College for Criminal Justice in New York. “But how many agents in the history of the Secret Service have actually been in that scenario? We’re talking a decimal of a percentage.”
Some of the experts cited the difference between how agents behaved after Trump was shot and how they acted after bullets struck President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Those agents were praised for their lightning response in shoving Reagan into a limousine as others rushed the shooter.
“If a protectee is being attacked, you get them off the point, even if that means you literally take them off their feet,” a former agent told NBC News. “No matter what they’re saying, no matter the injury, you get them off the point.”
The former agents and experts acknowledged that the agents acted bravely in putting themselves in the line of fire. But they are puzzled by the failure to follow their training after that, and some said they believe there is a likely explanation: that Trump’s Secret Service detail may be too close to him personally and accustomed to deferring to his wishes and commands.
“I’ve heard it and I’ve seen it firsthand — Trump is very chummy with his USSS detail,” said a former law enforcement official familiar with the Trump detail. “A lot of them are very ideologically aligned with him. They aren’t shy about it — they basically agree with Trump and with his worldview.”
Trump’s son Eric appeared to confirm a close relationship with agents in an interview Tuesday with MSNBC’s Katy Tur.
“I know all those agents onstage, and they’re the greatest people ever,” he said. “I know those people intimately. I know their family.”
There is another reason agents may have been hesitant. Trump is also known as being among “the most difficult protectees” in part because of his and his staff’s questioning of some protection protocols, according to two former agents.
“When you train, you practice literally picking them up, covering them, getting them to the Beast,” meaning the presidential limousine, one of them said.
“Every second counts,” the former agent added. “You do whatever it takes — there is no discussion, no pausing, no waiting. It does not matter what the protectee says or wants.”
The Secret Service spokesperson declined to comment. “We don’t talk about protectees; it would jeopardize USSS’ ability to do our job.”
Former Secret Service agent Rich Staropoli said he has heard another line of criticism in the last few days — that some of the agents on the detail were too short to properly protect a 6-foot-3 man.
“Even though those agents did an incredibly brave thing jumping on top of him, once he stood up, he was exposed again to a known shooter mid-chest up," Staropoli said. "You’ve left him completely uncovered ... because your agents simply aren’t tall enough to provide the level of physical protection that was needed at that moment.”
Multiple investigations are planned to review the actions of the Secret Service, including an independent review ordered by President Joe Biden, an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general and various congressional probes.
In a statement Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle did not directly address the criticism.
“Secret Service personnel on the ground moved quickly during the incident,” the statement said, “with our counter sniper team neutralizing the shooter and our agents implementing protective measures to ensure the safety of former president Donald Trump.”
