Trump faces elevated security threat as Secret Service cases surge
Former Secret Service agent Tim Miller described what he called an unusually high security threat surrounding President Trump, pointing to reported assassination plots and even an image depicting him in a casket. Miller said the Secret Service needs substantial resources to get ahead of a threat environment he characterized as unprecedented, involving both foreign actors and domestic hate groups.
Three U.S. Secret Service officials were placed on administrative leave Tuesday as the agency opened an internal investigation into possible misconduct.
The Secret Service Office of Professional Responsibility had only just begun its review Tuesday and did not disclose details about the nature of the allegations involving the three officials.
The agency’s public information office said the officials were not serving in law enforcement positions within the Secret Service.
Secret Service agents on a rooftop. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The Secret Service has been under heightened scrutiny during President Donald Trump’s administration following three separate assassination attempts targeting him.
The first attempt, which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, triggered a series of congressional hearings involving Secret Service leadership.
A U.S. Secret Service agent, left, protects President Donald Trump, right. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
More recently, the Secret Service said on Tuesday that it was aware of a threat from Iran against the president’s youngest son, Barron Trump.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees,” Nate Herring, a Secret Service spokesperson, told News Outlet.
“Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence,” Herring added.
The video depicts locations associated with the younger Trump’s whereabouts. It ends with a suggested $10 million reward for his location.
Barron Trump became a prominent figure during his father’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, going viral in the process. (Getty)
Iranian state media has aired content on multiple occasions threatening Trump and his family following the assassination of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which came at the start of the war between the United States and Iran, as well as the U.S. airstrike that killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in 2020.
“I don’t think it’s any secret, it’s been in the media, that Iran has publicly said they want to kill President Trump,” Deputy Director of the U.S. Secret Service Matt Quinn told reporters at an event last month.
President Donald Trump. (Fox News)
The video came amid threats from the Trump administration to nations that fail to sever their economic ties with Tehran and an ongoing naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
In July, Trump secretly switched planes from Air Force One to another aircraft in Turkey via a catering truck due to a credible Iranian surface-to-air missile threat.
