( NYPost )
The Secret Service has recommended that the Trump campaign no longer schedule outdoor rallies in the wake of the assassination attempt against the former president.
Since the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pa., Secret Service officials have communicated the agency’s concerns about large outdoor events featuring Trump to his campaign advisers, encouraging them to no longer hold the 78-year-old Republican nominee for president’s rallies out in the open, according to the Washington Post.
The Trump campaign appears to have heeded the agency’s concerns and is scouting indoor venues for future gatherings and not currently planning any large outdoor events, the outlet reported.
The campaign’s next two events are slated to be held in a multipurpose arena in Charlotte, NC., and a hockey arena in St. Cloud, Minn.
The former president’s first rally since the assassination attempt, which left him with a bloody ear, one rally-goer dead and two others critically wounded, was held indoors as well, in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Saturday.
Trump has held dozens of large outdoor rallies since launching his 2024 White House bid, and hundreds since his first presidential campaign in 2016, with airports, fairgrounds and parks frequently being utilized by the campaign to stage the events.
The two rallies that immediately preceded the shooting were outdoors, in Chesapeake, Va., and at his golf course in Doral, Fla.
The events routinely draw thousands of passionate supporters of the GOP nominee and usually feature a number of prominent speakers ahead of Trump’s remarks.
Earlier this summer, a Trump rally in Wildwood, NJ., drew an estimated crowd of between 80,000 and 100,000, a record for a Garden State political rally.
While indoor rallies are more costly to stage, they are inherently safer because of the limited number of entryways and reduced line-of-sight issues, a Trump campaign official told the Washington Post.
Trump’s would-be assassin, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was lying on a rooftop just 130 yards away from the presidential candidate when he opened fire.
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned Tuesday after facing criticism – from both sides of the political aisle – that her agency did adequately protect Trump at the Butler, Pa., rally.
Secret Service officials also repeatedly rejected Trump’s request for additional security in the two years before the assassination attempt, citing a lack of resources.
The Secret Service and the Trump campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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