Secret Service approves bulletproof glass for Donald Trump at outdoor rallies

WASHINGTON — The Secret Service is amping up its protection of former President Donald Trump in the wake of his near-assassination , including using bulletproof ballistic glass at some of his outdoor rallies and adding protective detail agents where warranted.

Some of those agents might come from the protective detail for President Joe Biden due to his reduced travel schedule after leaving the 2024 race, as part of a complex series of rotating deployments, according to a source familiar with the planning. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operational security matters, and said the changes were warranted due to the increased threat of violence to the former president.

The move to upgrade Trump's security comes just over a month after the Secret Service failed to protect the GOP presidential nominee last month from a sniper who crawled up onto the roof of a nearby building at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, managed to fire off eight rounds from an AR-style rifle before before being shot and killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper stationed on another nearby rooftop. Trump was wounded in the right ear and one rallygoer was killed and two others injured in the assassination attempt. Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle resigned, and the agency pledged to beef up security so that none of its several dozen protectees are that vulnerable again.

The decision to deploy the ballistic glass – an expensive and logistically complicated one – is somewhat unusual because it is traditionally only used for sitting presidents and vice presidents, the source familiar with the planning told USA TODAY. That’s because it's transported using military aircraft that accompany the president on trips.

Candidates for president, even a former president like Trump, are not provided with such military transportation and logistics support.

Ensuring safety of candidates and presidents the 'highest priority'

The Secret Service declined to comment on the changes, saying in a statement that “Ensuring the safety of our protectees is the U.S. Secret Service’s highest priority. However, to protect the integrity of our operations, we cannot comment on the specific protective means and methods used.”

The source familiar with the planning confirmed the changes, saying that the agency aims to provide whatever level of security is required for all of its protectees.

Regarding Trump’s protective detail, Secret Service spokeswoman Alexi Worley said the agency can’t confirm the specifics of how many agents are assigned to Biden – or to Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris , the Democratic nominee.

But she said that in his capacity as President, Biden “receives the highest level of protection from the Secret Service.”

“The agency’s Presidential Protective Division is made up of several hundred highly trained special agents, technical security and mission support personnel,” Worley said in a statement.

“On a case-by-case basis for complex and large-scale events, experienced Presidential Protective Division personnel may assist in advance planning for former President Donald Trump and other high level protectees," she said. "This support is separate from Presidential Protective Division operational demands.”

This practice has been commonly used during the United Nations General Assembly in New York and when other high-security world leaders visit the U.S., according to the Secret Service.

Secret Service under heavy fire for Trump near-assassination

The Secret Service has suffered intense criticism since Trump was nearly killed at the July 13 rally, especially for allowing Crooks to get a clear shot at the candidate. That and other failures, including communication breakdowns with local police, led to Cheatle's resignation .

Before resigning, Cheatle said she had already begun bolstering the protective details of the candidates for president, including at both parties’ nominating conventions. The Democrats are set to convene in Chicago on Monday to anoint Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Trump has not held an outdoor campaign event since the shooting in Butler. He also has faced threats from Iranian operatives, U.S. intelligence officials have said. Earlier this month, a Pakistani national with ties to Iran was charged in a plot to murder a U.S. politician or government official, potentially in response to the Trump administration's 2020 killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday.

More: Iran-linked plotter who may have targeted Donald Trump arrested, charged in New York

The source familiar with the new and sensitive security dynamics said that because Trump still won’t have military logistics support, the ballistic glass will be positioned around the country and used by the Secret Service when deemed necessary for a particular venue.

The agency is providing other augmented safety measures as well, including increased staffing and tools like aerial drones to better mitigate threats at outdoor rallies.

An expensive and complicated undertaking

Former Secret Service Director John Magaw said it’s not easy to lug around and set up the massively heavy ballistic glass panels for an outdoor rally like the ones Trump likes to hold. But he said they can be instrumental in providing security, especially at outdoor locations where there are too many vantage points from which a potential sniper could shoot.

“Normally your counter-sniper supervisor comes in a day or two early. They do a flyover of a drone and take pictures and everything. And then you decide how you're going to cover direct line of fire,” Magaw told USA TODAY. “You can either cover it with glass, the protective glass that'll handle a rifle shot, or you can split the venue into four quadrants,” with each one covered by a separate counter-sniper team.

Magaw said that often both tactics are used, providing a very effective shield. In the past, he said, the “glass armor,” as the Secret Service often calls it, often required specific measurements to tailor it to a particular venue.

“You need to put the glass up in such a way that it takes away the angle that any shooter might try to use,” Magaw said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Secret Service approves bulletproof glass for Donald Trump at outdoor rallies