Secret Service approval plunges to new low after Trump assassination attempt: poll
Public perception of the Secret Service hit its lowest point in at least a decade following the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump this past July.Just 32% of adults surveyed by Gallup earlier this month described the protective agency’s performance as “good” or “excellent,” while 25% said it was “fair” and 36% dubbed it “poor.”It marks the first time in 10 years of polling that Gallup has found majority disapproval of the Secret Service, after most Americans (55%) rated its performance as excellent or good just last year.In 2014, the last time the agency approached having such low scores, 43% of Americans rated it “excellent” or “good,” 30% rated it “fair” and 16% rated it “poor.”Republicans and GOP-leaning independents were especially harsh on the Secret Service, with just 20% rating it excellent or good after 46% did the same last year.
Among Democrats and affiliated independents, the excellent or good rating slipped from 65% in 2023 to 47% in 2024.The survey was taken after gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired eight shots at Trump, 78, during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pa., killing rallygoer Corey Comperatore and wounding the 45th president and two others.The Secret Service has faced questions about how Crooks had managed to crawl across the roof of a nearby shed, some 130 yards from Trump, with a firearm.
Several attendees later claimed to have attempted to alert law enforcement prior to the shooting.Agency director Kimberly Cheatle resigned later that month amid mounting backlash.The survey was still in the field on Sept.
15, when an advance agent opened fire on a suspect later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who had set up a sniper’s nest near the 6th hole at Trump International Golf Club West Palm Beach.Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe later claimed that the protective agency had limited time to plan for Trump’s golf outing that day and reportedly privately told the former pr...