As if the Secret Service was not already struggling to salvage its credibility after two failed assassination attempts targeting former President Donald Trump, the agency now faces a fresh whistleblower allegation. If this one is true, it is nothing less than stunning – especially so, this close to a presidential election.
In the game of Electoral College chess, currently being played by the two main presidential campaigns, Wisconsin has become a significant prize. Kamala Harris was able to hold a campaign event in Wisconsin – with full Secret Service protection, of course. But the unidentified whistleblower claimed the agency told the Trump team it would be unable to provide adequate security for a planned campaign event in the Badger State.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) received the whistleblower's allegation from “[a] person with direct knowledge of the exchange” between the agency and the Trump campaign, said a report in The Washington Times. According to Hawley, the whistleblower said the Secret Service “effectively forced the Trump campaign to cancel an upcoming event in Wisconsin.”
It is true that the Secret Service advises its protectees on the relative risks of visiting certain locations if a perceived or suspected threat is significant. As a rule, the agency does not prevent a protectee from going anywhere he or she wants to go. Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe confirmed this during a recent press conference, saying that campaign staff had the final say in what locations it chooses for an event.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s a campaign staff or a White House staff,” Rowe explained, “we have conversations — and we have very good working relationships with those staffs. But ultimately it is the Secret Service’s responsibility to secure a site.”
Hawley maintained that Rowe, in response to the senator's query about the whistleblower allegation, told him, “Well, [Trump] is going to be able to do a Wisconsin event – it's just not going to be a big event.”
Secret Service Election Meddling?
The Secret Service is currently in disarray, plagued by multiple scandals. Among Trump's supporters and allies, suspicions are growing that the agency is practically working against the former president. This new claim about the Wisconsin rally will do nothing to allay that suspicion. In fact, it will surely only fuel it.
All this comes at a time when there is a credible threat to Trump's life from the Iranian government and, it appears, from domestic anti-Trump activists. A great many people on the right are claiming that the latter threat has been incited by a stream of dangerous rhetoric coming from elected Democrats, their supporters in the media, and various other prominent voices on the left.
On Sept. 25, during an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe show, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said of Trump, “Let's extinguish him for good.” Certainly, Raimondo was speaking in the context of defeating Trump at the ballot box in November. Still, the language was unnecessarily loaded – one might even say violent.
Democratic Rep. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands on Sept. 25 described Trump as a “would-be Führer” during a House hearing. In June of 2023, during an appearance on MSNBC, Plaskett proclaimed the former president “needs to be shot,” before quickly following up with “stopped.” There are so many examples of this kind of language from Democrats, many of them coming even after a second failed attempt on the life of the 45th president, that one could be forgiven for thinking they are ramping up anti-Trump hysteria to an even greater level – and deliberately so. At the same time, some people on the left are pleading for “both sides” to tone down the language.
The Secret Service certainly has its work cut out for it, protecting Trump until the November election and beyond – especially if he wins but probably also if he loses. The agency needs to retrain, refocus, and probably clean house. The whistleblower’s allegation about the Wisconsin campaign event has not been publicly substantiated. If the agency really did press Trump's campaign to cancel an event in what could well be a crucial swing state, serious questions need to be asked about the motives of the people running the Secret Service.
