The U.S. Secret Service repeatedly encountered drone-related security incidents but failed to update its protective policies or adequately document its decisions, potentially missing warnings about a threat that later emerged during the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump, a government report said Thursday.
The report from the Government Accountability Office found delays and holes in how the Secret Service updates its policies regarding threats, and arrives after a few turbulent years for the agency charged with the president's protection.
The would-be assassin in Butler positioned himself on a roof left unsecured, nicking the president's ear with a bullet. Months later, a man with a rifle got surprisingly close to Trump at his West Palm Beach golf course. And in April, an armed man got beyond security barriers at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, where the president sat.
The report found that between 2015 and 2025 the Secret Service dealt with 83 security incidents and that they updated their protection policies in response to 25 of them. Among the incidents was a drone that made contact with President Barack Obama's motorcade in 2015 and another flown about 200 feet (60 meters) over a rally for then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
