Donald Trump faces new ‘threats’ amid wild Secret Service failures

Intelligence finds ‘real and specific’ plots to assassinate Donald Trump, as a bombshell report on the first attempt reveals a Secret Service agent called a tech support hotline.

Donald Trump said there were “big threats” on his life after classified intelligence briefings revealed a “real and specific” assassination plot from Iran.

It comes as a preliminary report into the first assassination attempt revealed an inexperienced Secret Service agent called a toll-free tech support hotline for help with drone equipment.

The bombshell claims of an expected third attempt to kill Mr Trump are the result of Iran’s attempt to sow chaos into the US presidential election, according to US officials.

Mr Trump suggested at a campaign rally that Iran may have been behind both assassination attempts but that the FBI has not been able to penetrate the two gunmen’s phones or laptops to confirm.

The first gunman, Thomas Crooks, was killed while the alleged second gunman, Ryan Routh, 58, was formally charged with attempted assassination.

“There have been two assassination attempts on my life that we know of, and they may or may not involve, but possibly do, Iran, but I don’t really know,” he said.

Earlier this year, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali posted an animation of Mr Trump’s assassination as “revenge for the martyrdom of Qassem Soleimani”, who was killed in a 2020 drone strike in Iraq.

Iran Trump assassination plot

“Big threats on my life by Iran. The entire U.S. Military is watching and waiting,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“Moves were already made by Iran that didn’t work out, but they will try again. … I am surrounded by more men, guns, and weapons than I have ever seen before,” he said.

The increased security follows intense scrutiny of the US Secret Service security failures that allowed two attempts to kill Mr Trump.

A preliminary report of the July 13 attempt from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs revealed the key missteps that allowed Mr Crooks to shoot Mr Trump in the ear, kill an audience member, and wound two others.

Most embarrassingly for the Secret Service, an inexperienced agent with only an hour of informal training on drone equipment called a hotline to help with drone equipment.

Mr Crooks had air superiority over the Secret Service with his drone able to survey the location.

Neither agents from Trump’s detail nor the Pittsburgh field office were aware that the Secret Service’s security room and counter-sniper team were warned about Crooks 27 minutes before the shooting.

Moment Donald Trump is shot

“Shortly before shots were fired, a USSS counter sniper saw local law enforcement running toward the AGR building with their guns drawn, but he did not alert former President Trump’s protective detail to remove him from the stage,” the committee revealed in the 94-page report. “The USSS counter sniper told the Committee that while seeing officers with their guns drawn ‘elevated’ the threat level, the thought to notify someone to get Trump off the stage ‘did not cross [his] mind.’”

The Secret Service has since elevated security for Mr Trump amid US intelligence reports of “real and specific” threats from Iran to assassinate the former president.

“President Trump was briefed earlier today by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him to destabilise and sow chaos in the United States,” campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in the statement.

“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and co-ordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” he added.

Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage after being shot. Picture; AFP

While no further detail on the threats was provided, the report into the first assassination attempt revealed that the counter-snipers that spotted Mr Crooks were only on-site as a result of “credible intelligence” of a potential threat.

Mr Trump would not have typically had the counter snipers for a rally until after the RNC.

Iran has denied accusations it is behind a plot to kill Mr Trump.

Mr Routh, who did not fire a shot at Mr Trump before was confronted by the Secret Service, invoked Iran as a major part of his political motivation, saying Mr Trump “ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unravelled”.

Mr Trump said that it was still a “possibility” that another gunman tries for a third time to kill him.

“If they do ‘assassinate President Trump,’” he said on Truth Social. “I hope that America obliterates Iran, wipes it off the face of the Earth — If that does not happen, American Leaders will be considered ‘gutless’ cowards!”

Originally published as Donald Trump faces new ‘threats’ amid wild Secret Service failures