Secret Service agents are called upon to remove protection from Jimmy Carter, 99, to better protect Trump
Rep. Mike Waltz, a member of the House Task Force on Assassination, says there is much the U.S. Secret Service can do to free up more resources to provide details to those protected most at risk.
At the top of the list is reducing the security capabilities of 99-year-old former President Jimmy Carter.
It comes as Congress considers whether to provide more funding for the USSS, following two separate assassination attempts on Donald Trump and tightening scrutiny of the agency.
Rep. Waltz proposed three quick things he believes can be done to better allocate resources rather than just pumping more money into the agency.
The first two, he said at X, are “fixing the broken protocols” and “holding leaders accountable for mistakes.”
Rep. Mike Waltz says the Secret Service details provided to former President Jimmy Carter could be scaled back to provide more detail for protecting Donald Trump, as he laid out some options for how the agency could reallocate resources.
The latter is something Republicans have been demanding since Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. The pressure led to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigning in the wake of the attack.
Since then, Ronald Rowe, acting director of the USSS, has taken over and was responsible when his agents prevented a second attempt in West Palm Beach, Florida, on September 15.
“I am open to more resources for the Secret Service, but let’s see some REAL changes FIRST,” Waltz wrote on X.
He said staff and resources should be deployed on a “threat-based security model”.
The example he gave for the third recommendation was, “Trump’s security should not be the same as Jimmy Carter’s!”
Congress is considering sending more money to the agency after two separate assassination attempts on Trump. Pictured: Secret Service surrounds the former president after a would-be assassin shot him in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13
Just two months after the first assassination attempt, another gunman tried to shoot Trump during a round of golf at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida
Carter will turn 100 on October 1. Since February 2023, he has been living at home in Plains, Georgia, where he receives palliative care.
Meanwhile, Trump is the 2024 Republican nominee and is actively campaigning. There are also multiple credible threats to the former president.
Speaking to a CNN reporter about the USSS’s request for more money, Waltz said, “You don’t get these kinds of spectacular, once-in-a-generation failures and you can say, ‘Well, I need more money.’
Waltz is one of 13 members of the bipartisan House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump. This week, its scope expanded from investigating the Butler attempt to the West Palm Beach incident.
The House Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump is investigating the roof where Trump was shot by a gunman earlier this summer. Waltz is part of the 13-member panel investigating the attacks
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot and killed by the Secret Service after he shot Trump, killing a supporter and seriously wounding two others at the July rally
Police in Martin County, Florida, have arrested Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, after he fled the scene of a crime where he was seen staking out Trump’s golf course with an SKS rifle, bulletproof vest and a GoPro camera, allegedly intending to kill the former president.
As a former president, Jimmy Carter, 99, still received Secret Service protection. He was last seen in public at his wife Rosalynn’s funeral in November 2023 (pictured) — and has been receiving hospice care at his home in Plains, Georgia, since February 2023.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, opened fire at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania earlier this summer. Before he was taken down by Secret Service, Crooks shot Trump in the right ear, killing a supporter and seriously wounding two rally attendees.
Just over two months later, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, stood guard for 12 hours at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, waiting for the former president.
An officer shot Routh when he saw the barrel of his SKS rifle sticking out of the bushes surrounding the golf course, just two holes from where Trump was playing a round of golf on September 15.
Routh fled the scene and was arrested 50 miles from the club.