President-elect Donald Trump plans to announce Secret Service agent Sean Curran, who currently leads his detail, as the new director of the agency, according to three sources within the Secret Service community.
Curran, who has been with the agency for more than two decades, heads a team of about 85 agents dedicated to protecting the president-elect. He has served in this role for the past two and a half years during Trump’s presidential campaign.
Curran has developed the closest relationship with Trump of any current agent and is often positioned closest to him in the innermost ring of Secret Service security, tasked with safeguarding the incoming president on a daily basis, RealClearWire reported.
Curran was also one of the first agents to jump on top of Trump during the assassination attempt on the then-Republican nominee at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. He can be seen in the iconic photo of Trump, blood-stained and pumping his fist in the air, surrounded by agents and an American flag in the background, the newswire noted.
Given the two assassination attempts against Trump in the final months of the campaign, the president-elect’s choice for Secret Service director is one of the most personal and important decisions for the incoming administration.
A key factor in Curran’s favor is his role in persistently requesting additional security resources for Trump’s campaign, despite facing resistance from Secret Service leadership for more than two years, according to prior reports.
Curran has documented these denied requests, likely through emails from the Office of Protective Operations, according to multiple sources in the Secret Service community, RealClearWire reported.
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, with input from her deputy, now acting Director Ron Rowe, and others, adhered to the protocol of treating Trump like a former president, assuming he didn’t require the highest level of security, despite the attempts on his life.
However, Trump, one of the most well-known and polarizing figures in modern politics, defied the traditional expectations for former presidents.
By continuing an outdated policy, the USSS leadership failed to adhere to the agency’s own threat-based standards for allocating security resources to protectees, the outlet reported.
Various formal investigations found that if there had been assets like additional counter snipers and a Counter Surveillance Unit provided, Butler, Pa., shooter Thomas Crooks likely would have been detected early and neutralized.
Curran is highly regarded by most agents and within the broader Secret Service community, though some have raised concerns about his lack of managerial experience. They believe he will need to shift from being a shift agent and team leader to adopting a more forceful presence to truly overhaul the agency, clean house, and implement the reforms that many current and former agents feel are urgently needed.
However, Curran was in a top leadership role on the detail during two assassination attempts on Trump, one of which resulted in Trump being shot in the ear and nearly killed—a deeply embarrassing moment for the agency, comparable to the 1981 shooting of President Reagan by John Hinckley outside the Washington Hilton.
A second attempt on Trump’s life occurred outside his West Palm Beach Golf Club about two months later, when Ryan Routh, the perpetrator, was allowed to lie in wait for the then-former president in the bushes along the club’s perimeter for over 12 hours. It wasn’t until a Secret Service agent stationed on the golf course noticed the tip of a rifle protruding from the fencing, pointing toward Trump, that the threat was detected.
In naming Curran, Trump would be disregarding the recommendations of two prominent review panels: one in 2015 and another last year, the bipartisan Independent Review Panel. Both panels advised that the next president should select someone from outside the agency to implement the significant reforms they and Congress have called for.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
