Former first lady Melania Trump, in an appearance on Fox News, condemned the Secret Service’s top brass for allowing repeated assassination attempts against her husband.
Former President Donald Trump has been targeted by two assassination attempts during his 2024 election campaign. The first attempt occurred when a shooter opened fire during a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, causing the former president to bleed from his ear. The second came last month when Secret Service agents thwarted a shooter who had camped out near Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Melania Trump said in a conversation that such threats persist because the country is “more divided than ever before.”
“We are dealing with much more danger — especially since we see what’s going on in the world and the threats that we get — and my husband, what he went through in the last few months,” she said. “Every event that has happened, I’m thinking, ‘What is next? What are they trying to do?’ You always fear the worst.”
Asked about her reaction to the first assassination attempt, Melania Trump explained she was horrified to see Secret Service agents leap on top of her husband while gunshots rang out. Despite their response, she condemned the agency for failing to provide better protection.
“It was really frightening and life stops in those few minutes; it was really very difficult,” she said. “The men with me and my husband are fantastic. But I feel it’s the top leadership; there are some holes and problems.”
“It comes from the top leadership that that happened,” she added. “I know and I have knowledge that our team asked many times for more security, more help, and they were denied.”
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned shortly after the first assassination attempt in July, following substantial pressure from lawmakers. She lamented the incident as the agency’s biggest failure in its history in testimony before Congress.
“The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13 is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades,” Cheatle said at a House Oversight Committee hearing. “As the director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse.”
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