'Everyone is so tired': Secret Service agents warn exhaustion could lead to another 'incident'

05 October 2024

As former President Donald Trump prepares to return to Butler, Pennsylvania — the same town where the first attempt on his life took place in July — several current and former U.S. Secret Service (USSS) agents are speaking out against what they describe as "unsustainable" conditions.

NBC News reported that the agency is near a breaking point, with USSS agents having to contend with an increased workload and very little sleep. In fact, some agents said they witnessed some of their coworkers falling asleep on the job, and that "resentment" toward the agency is brewing among the workforce. One agent even said foreign adversaries may be able to exploit overworked USSS agents.

"Any morale that may have existed in this agency is just absolutely down the drain; people are really starting to despise this agency,” one of the agents speaking anonymously told NBC. "Unfortunately, I truly wouldn’t be surprised with the state we’re in that agents could become compromised or sell information."

“Tensions are high and lapses of judgment are becoming more frequent,” another source within the agency said. “If something goes wrong, you don’t have time to second guess. Everyone is so tired that you can see it’s taking time to process things and react accordingly.”

An unnamed "former Secret Service official" told the network that the possibility of an "insider threat" should be taken seriously, and that it was past time for agency leadership to have a "come-to-Jesus, war room conversation" conversation about the stability of the agency.

“[Leadership] are even more concerned about compromise of an agent — the overwork, the international targeting, it’s just opening pandora’s box,” the official said.

“The US Secret Service is killing their people, and worse they are supposed to have a zero-fail protective mission on zero rest/sleep,” a former agent told NBC. “I love my agency but they are setting themselves up for another incident.”

Secret Service agents say their resources are stretched thin and need additional staff support to protect everyone the agency is tasked with safeguarding (which includes both sitting and former presidents along with their families). One primary task of the agency is to come up with a detailed security plan in advance of scheduled travel, which agents are saying is becoming increasingly difficult due to the growing threats from both domestic and foreign actors.

"There is a huge security risk because you already have agents that are burnt out, exhausted now having even less time to make a solid security plan and get all assets in order," an anonymous current agent told the network.

Aside from Butler, a would-be assassin also made an attempt on the former president's life in September, while he was playing golf at one of his courses. The agency has cautioned Trump against golfing, saying agents have immense difficulty coming up with a plan to secure the vast acreage of an 18-hole golf course.

"Outdoor events of that size and duration, three-to-five hours, are incredibly difficult and stressful," former USSS agent Paul Eckloff told Politico last month. "You can't surround a person who's golfing with steel or glass."

Click here to read NBC's report in its entirety.

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