President Trump revealed that he had chosen Sean Curran—one of the agents who leaped onto the stage during the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania—to lead the Secret Service in his next administration.
“Sean is a Great Patriot, who has protected my family over the past few years, and that is why I trust him to lead the Brave Men and Women of the United States Secret Service,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post.
Now 78, Trump praised Curran’s 23-year tenure at the Secret Service and highlighted his role as assistant special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division during Trump’s initial presidency.
The president emphasized that, in that capacity, Curran had “direct oversight and responsibility of multiple protectees, and enhanced security plans for my residences.”
Trump continued, “Sean has distinguished himself as a brilliant leader, who is capable of directing and leading operational security plans for some of the most complex Special Security Events in the History of our Country, and the World,” adding, “He proved his fearless courage when he risked his own life to help save mine from an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
Last July, Curran was among the agents who shielded Trump from gunfire when a shooter targeted the then-presumptive Republican candidate during a Butler campaign rally.
In the well-known photograph taken shortly after the would-be assassin’s bullet grazed the 45th president’s ear, Curran stands to Trump’s left wearing dark sunglasses, while Trump, bloodied, raises his fist under the American flag.
“I have complete and total confidence in Sean to make the United States Secret Service stronger than ever before,” Trump wrote.
Following the Butler shooting, the Secret Service was subject to intense backlash over the critical security oversights that nearly allowed for Trump’s assassination, including failing to guard the rooftop from which Thomas Matthew Crooks aimed his rifle at the president and others in attendance.
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle stepped down at the end of July in the wake of the Butler incident, and Acting Director Ronald Rowe took her place.
Trump, 78, was targeted again last September when Ryan Wesley Routh allegedly waited in the bushes with a rifle outside Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, golf course.
A Secret Service agent spotted the would-be shooter while Trump was on the course and foiled the plot, though the agency faced renewed criticism for not better securing the property ahead of the Republican nominee’s golf outing.
{Matzav.com}