The United States Secret Service is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with conducting criminal investigations and providing protection to U.S. political leaders,their families,and visiting heads of state or government. The Secret Service was,until 2003,part of the Department of the Treasury,due to their initial mandate of combating counterfeiting of U.S. currency. The agency has protected U.S. presidents and presidential candidates since 1901.
In the Line of Fire is a 1993 American political action thriller film directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Clint Eastwood,John Malkovich and Rene Russo. Written by Jeff Maguire,the film is about a disillusioned and obsessed former CIA agent who plans to assassinate the President of the United States and the Secret Service agent who is tracking him. Eastwood's character is the sole remaining active-duty Secret Service agent from the detail that was guarding John F. Kennedy in Dallas,Texas at the time of his assassination in 1963. The film also stars Dylan McDermott,Gary Cole,John Mahoney,and Fred Dalton Thompson.
Ronald Borek Kessler is an American journalist and author of 21 non-fiction books about the White House,U.S. Secret Service,FBI,and CIA.
Lewis Carlo Merletti was the 19th Director of the United States Secret Service. He succeeded Eljay B. Bowron,and was sworn in on June 6,1997,by the Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin. A 25-year veteran of the United States Secret Service,Merletti has also served as Assistant Director in the Office of Training,and as the Special Agent in Charge of the Presidential Protection Division.
Jerry S. Parr was a United States Secret Service agent who is best known for defending President Ronald Reagan during the attempt on the president's life on March 30,1981,in Washington,D.C. Parr pushed Reagan into the presidential limousine and made the critical decision to divert the presidential motorcade to George Washington University Hospital instead of returning to the White House. He was honored for his actions that day with U.S. Congress commendations,and is widely credited with helping to save the president's life.
Peter Brian Hegseth is an American author,television presenter,and Army veteran who is currently serving as the 29th United States secretary of defense since January 25,2025,in the second administration of President Donald Trump.
The United States Secret Service Uniformed Division is the federal police force of the U.S. Secret Service,similar to the U.S. Capitol Police or DHS Federal Protective Service. It is in charge of protecting the physical White House grounds and foreign diplomatic missions in the District of Columbia area.
John Lee Ratcliffe is an American politician and attorney who has served as the ninth director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 2025. He previously served as the sixth director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021 and served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2020.
On November 11,2011,Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez,an unemployed 21-year-old man,fired multiple shots at the White House using a semi-automatic rifle. At least seven bullets hit the second floor. Neither President Barack Obama nor First Lady Michelle Obama were home at the time;the president was not in Washington,D.C.,having been on a trip abroad. However,the couple's youngest daughter,Sasha,and the first lady's mother,Marian Shields Robinson,were in the White House. No one was injured. It took four days for the Secret Service to realize that bullets had struck the White House. Michelle Obama learned of the shooting from an usher,then summoned Mark J. Sullivan,director of the Secret Service,to find out why the first family had not been informed.
Joseph "Joe" P. Clancy is an American law enforcement official. He was the 24th Director of the United States Secret Service. Clancy previously served as head of the agency's presidential protection division until 2011,when he retired and became director of corporate security for Comcast.
The second presidential transition of Donald Trump began when he won the United States presidential election on November 5,2024,and became the president-elect. Trump was formally elected by the Electoral College on December 17,2024. The results were certified by a joint session of Congress on January 6,2025,and the transition concluded when Trump was inaugurated on January 20,2025.
David Cho is an American security officer and former U.S. Secret Service agent who was the Special Agent In Charge of the Presidential Protective Division detail for U.S. President Joe Biden. Prior to the Biden Administration,Cho served as leader of the Presidential Protective Division detail for President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has been involved in security incidents during his presidential campaigns and his first term in office,including assassination threats and attempts. The first known attempt occurred at a campaign rally a few weeks before Trump became the official nominee of the Republican Party in the 2016 presidential election. The most significant incident was an attempt to assassinate Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally during the 2024 presidential election,which resulted in two deaths and an injury to Trump's ear. Another assassination attempt took place in September 2024 at the Trump International Golf Club.
Anthony M. Ornato is the former assistant director of the United States Secret Service Office of Training. He was the service's 34th special agent in charge who headed the security detail of president Donald Trump until being detailed to the White House where the president named him White House Deputy Chief of Staff for operations in December 2019. After his tenure as a government SES detailee in the Trump administration,he returned to the Secret Service where he worked as the assistant director in the office of training until August 29,2022.
Kimberly A. Cheatle is an American law enforcement officer who served as the 27th director of the United States Secret Service from 2022 until 2024. After serving in the Secret Service from 1995 to 2019,she worked as senior director of global security at PepsiCo from 2019 to 2022. Appointed director of the Secret Service by President Joe Biden,she assumed the office on 17 September 2022,becoming the second woman to hold the position.
On July 13,2024,Donald Trump,the then-former president of the United States and then-presumptive nominee of the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election,survived an assassination attempt while speaking at an open-air campaign rally near Butler,Pennsylvania. Trump was shot and wounded in his upper right ear by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks,of Bethel Park,Pennsylvania,who fired eight rounds from an AR-15–style rifle from the roof of a nearby building. Crooks also killed one audience member and critically injured two others. After being shot at by a member of the Butler County's Emergency Services Unit,who hit Crooks's rifle and stopped the shots,Crooks was shot and killed 10 seconds later by the United States Secret Service's Counter Sniper Team.
Evan Vucci,an American photojournalist,captured a series of photographs of Donald Trump,the President of the United States and the then presumptive nominee of the Republican Party who would win the 2024 presidential election,with blood on his face and raising his right fist shortly after he was shot during an assassination attempt at a political rally near Butler,Pennsylvania,on July 13,2024. In some of the photos,Trump's mouth is open as he says "Fight!";in others,Trump's mouth is closed. The photographs were reposted widely on social media and received substantial press coverage;commentators praised their composition and predicted they would become iconic images of an era.
Ronald L. Rowe Jr. is an American law enforcement officer who served as acting director of the United States Secret Service from 2024 to 2025. Rowe was appointed to the position after former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned in 2024,amidst intense criticism of the Secret Service following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
On September 15,2024,Donald Trump,the then-former president of the United States and then-nominee of the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election,survived an assassination attempt while golfing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach,Florida. A suspect,later identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh,was spotted hiding in nearby shrubbery while aiming a rifle at a member of Trump's security detail. A Secret Service agent fired upon Routh,who fled the scene and was later captured in Martin County. No injuries were reported. Officials say that Routh intended to shoot Trump,and Routh had been indicted on five federal charges by September 24,including attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate. The incident occurred two months after Trump survived a previous assassination attempt while speaking at a campaign rally near Butler,Pennsylvania. Routh has pleaded not guilty to the charges,and a preliminary trial date has been set for September 8,2025. Routh could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
