Top officials at the U.S. Secret Service repeatedly denied requests for additional resources and personnel sought by Donald Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination at a rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday, according to four people familiar with the requests.
Washington
Secret Service said to have denied requests for more security at Trump events
Those rejections — in response to requests that were several times made in writing — led to long-standing tensions that pitted Trump, his top aides and his security detail against Secret Service leadership, as Trump advisers privately fretted that the vaunted security agency was not doing enough to protect the former president.
The Secret Service, after initially denying turning down requests for additional security, is now acknowledging some may have been rejected. The revelation comes as agency veterans say the organization has been forced to make difficult decisions amid competing demands, a growing list of protectees and limited funding.
A gunman was able to fire off rounds from an AR-15 style rifle from a rooftop about 150 yards of the former president at the rally last Saturday. Trump was injured as were two others; a man in the crowd was killed. The agency has been under scrutiny over security lapses at the rally.
Trump advisers’ anger deepened after an agency spokesman publicly denied that any request for additional security lodged by Trump or his detail had ever been rejected. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who has been under pressure to resign over security lapses at the rally, repeated that denial in a meeting with Trump campaign leadership in Wisconsin on Monday, people familiar with the discussions said.
“The assertion that a member of the former president’s security team requested additional security resources that the U.S. Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false,” said Anthony Guglielmi, a spokesman for the Secret Service, in a statement on the day after the shooting.
After receiving detailed questions from The Washington Post, Guglielmi said the agency had learned new information indicating the agency’s headquarters may have in fact denied some requests for additional security from Trump’s detail and was reviewing documentation to understand the specific interactions better.
“The Secret Service has a vast, challenging, and intricate mission,” he said in a statement. “Every day we work in a dynamic threat environment to ensure our protectees are safe and secure across multiple events, travel, and other difficult environments. We execute a comprehensive and layered strategy to balance personnel, technology, and specialized operational needs.”
In response to a request for comment, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign referred to a statement Trump posted on Truth Social praising his own Secret Service detail.
The extended tussle over safeguarding a former president who holds regular public events that draw large crowds raises new questions for the Secret Service, a long admired protection force that guards American presidents, their families and other senior officials. But it has been plagued by staffing shortages and hiring limits since 2010 and suffered a series of embarrassing security lapses during the Obama and Trump administrations.
A Secret Service official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe sensitive internal discussions, said the agency has finite resources and has to juggle competing demands, especially for its countersnipers, counterassault teams and the teams of uniformed division officers who help screen attendees for weapons at events using magnetometers.
The agency is currently responsible for security details for more than two dozen people, most of them requiring full-time security and a few others receiving what is informally called “door-to-door” protection from the moment they leave their homes. Protectees include the president and vice president and their families, as well as former presidents, candidates and a growing number of senior administration officials. After the Butler shooting, the agency added a protective detail to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate, and is now protecting GOP vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance as well.
Bill Gage, a former Secret Service agent who served on presidential protection and counterassault teams during the Bush and Obama administrations, said the agency is always drowning in far more requests and events than it can possibly handle with its hiring limits, and that leads to headquarters denying requests even more frequently during the busy campaign season.
“I hate to dumb it down this much but it is a simple case of supply and demand. The requests get turned down routinely,” Gage said. “A director has to finally come forward to say we are way understaffed and we cannot possibly continue with this zero fail mission without a significantly bigger budget.”
The Service’s Office of Protective Operations reviews security requests for events, and as part of a regular push-and-pull, it sometimes reconsiders initial denials after being persuaded the risk justifies the expense, officials have said. But it must balance the reality that each agent, countersniper or magnetometer assigned to cover one event reduces what is available for other people the Service protects.
The weekend of the Butler shooting, the Secret Service had sent multiple countersniper teams and hundreds of agents to the Republican National Convention and was also securing an event by Jill Biden and a scheduled trip by President Biden to Austin the day after the shooting.
“It’s just true — we don’t have the resources to secure him [Trump] like we did when he was president,” the official said.
None of the denied requests that The Post reviewed related to the Pennsylvania rally. But one of the denials that most concerned Trump officials came as he held a rally in South Carolina in July 2023, one of the first large-scale events of his current campaign. Trump was speaking in a downtown square in Pickens, a small town 20 miles west of Greenville, at a site surrounded by commercial and residential buildings. People familiar with the request said that Trump’s security team asked for more countersnipers to be stationed on rooftops to guard against potential shooters or other attacks.
The people said the Pickens event was one of several in which Trump’s team was denied more tactical support. Trump’s detail was told Secret Service headquarters had determined they could not provide the resources after the detail made an extensive argument for why the teams were needed, they said.
Guglielmi said the Service is still reviewing the planning for the Pickens event but said local countersnipers rather than Secret Service teams were on hand to help address the threats of potential shooters.
On multiple other occasions, Trump’s team asked for magnetometers and additional help to screen attendees for Trump to attend sporting events, particularly wrestling matches and college football games, people familiar with those requests said. They were told no because the events were not campaign events.
In one instance, the Secret Service argued the screening was unnecessary because Trump would be entering a stadium to watch a football game via a secure elevator and then be guided through a secure area to a private suite with controlled access, according to a Secret Service official who reviewed some of the security requests.
“He was not going through the general population,” the official said. “You don’t need to mag the entire stadium” in those circumstances.
But Trump advisers said he often moved through open-air concourses at the games, interacting with large swaths of the public. Some Trump advisers were repeatedly concerned about his safety at the sporting events as he moved through the areas, people familiar with the matter said.
People around Trump were also concerned by what they feared was an insufficient number of magnetometers and security personnel at rallies, they said, including one in 2023 in Macomb, Michigan, where some attendees jumped over bike racks to get past security and were restrained by local police, according to people close to Trump who witnessed the episode.
Several Trump advisers said the denials had been a frustration for more than a year.
The Secret Service extends the highest level of protection to current presidents and officials. Former presidents receive a significantly lesser degree of Secret Service protection, but Trump’s high profile and daily routines make him a different kind of security challenge than most former presidents, according to former Secret Service agents.
Trump is also the first former president in modern times to run for reelection, which carries additional security burdens, though candidates are not provided the same level of security as sitting presidents.
Other former presidents only rarely make large, public appearances, living more private lives. Trump, on the other hand, is almost always around crowds, at his clubs and golf courses, and holds frequent campaign events attended by thousands, if not tens of thousands, particularly since he announced a new run for the presidency in November 2022.
Cheatle, a veteran Secret Service agent, has called the security failure at the rally on July 13 unacceptable, as a gunman was allowed to fire from an unsecured roof around 150 yards from where Trump addressed the crowd. The gunman spotted acting suspiciously before Trump began speaking but the Secret Service did not intervene or prevent Trump from taking the stage.
The Secret Service and Trump’s orbit also argued over planning for the Republican National Convention, particularly over how large of a security perimeter the agency would impose. The relationship grew so acrimonious that senior Republicans repeatedly sought meetings with Secret Service leadership in Washington after battling with agents on the ground over security and logistics.
On Thursday, Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita called for Cheatle to resign, as has a number of lawmakers in both parties. During the convention, several Republican senators chased Cheatle through the arena in Milwaukee, where she had traveled to brief them on the investigation. The senators screamed at her after she declined to answer questions about the attempted assassination.
SEATTLE – As more heavy rainfall is expected in western Washington this week, the region remains under a Flood Watch, with road closures, evacuations, and power outages persisting.
A Flash Flood Warning was activated and later canceled for parts of south King County after a Green River levee failed. The levee has since been repaired, patched by sandbags after nearby businesses were evacuated.
Desimone Levee breech. (Dana Ralph, Kent Mayor)
Keep reading for live weather updates for Tuesday, Dec. 16.
8:05 a.m.: Resources available in Pacific, WA
Valley Regional Fire listed several resources on behalf of the city of Pacific:
- Warm location that will be serving coffee and breakfast: Senior Center and the gym at the Pacific Community Center (100 3rd Ave SE)
- Auburn Community and Events Center (910 9th ST SE) is open with Red Cross resources
- The Filipino American Community of Puget Sound in Algona (103 6th Ave N) is also offering a warm location
- Alpac Elementary School (310 Milwaukee Blvd N) parking lot is available in addition to restrooms.
- Sandbags are available at 224 County Line Road
7:42 a.m.: Puget Sound Energy crews make significant progress in restoring power outages in WA
Puget Sound Energy (PSE) crews made great progress overnight after more than 50,000 people in western Washington lost power on Monday. As of 7:42 a.m. on Tuesday, there are only 56 outages impacted 1,343 customers.Snohomish PUD is reporting outages impacting 490 people. Clallam County PUD is reporting 0 outages.
7:40 a.m.: SR 167 remains closed between Kent and Auburn
‘Go Now’ evacuation in Auburn
Flooding from the Green River is forcing Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation order in the area between South 277th and north of 42nd, and east of SR-167 and west of Green River.
The Washington State Department of Transportation said both directions of State Route 167 remain closed on Tuesday between South 212th Street in Kent and 15th Avenue West in Auburn due to flooding.
Drivers are advised to take alternate routes and expect delays on I-5 and I-405.
WSDOT’s David Rasbach told Good Day Seattle there was still water over the roadway in the area.
State Route 167 remains closed between Kent and Auburn.
7:30 a.m.: Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation in Auburn, WA
There are still evacuation orders in effect in Auburn, Washington. This flooding from the Green River is forcing Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation order in the area between South 277th and north of 42nd, and east of SR-167 and west of Green River.
There are also Level 2 ‘Get Set’ Evacuations in several neighborhoods along both sides of the Green River, including areas near 104th Avenue Southeast, Pike Street Northeast and Pike Place Northeast – south of the Auburn Golf Course. Anyone who lives there should be prepared to leave at a moment’s notice if things get worse.
Officials say evacuees seeking shelter can go to the Auburn Community and Event Center and Ray of Hope Shelter in Auburn.
7:24 a.m.: Person dead after driving car onto flooded roadway in Snohomish County
A driver died overnight in Snohomish after reportedly bypassing road closure signs and plunging into a flooded ditch near East Lowell Larimer Road.
7:03 a.m.: Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation in Concrete, WA; School district closed
There is a Level 3 ‘Go Now’ Evacuation order in place for the Erikson Road neighborhood in Concrete, Washington.
The town says they found a landslide there last week, and with more rain and wind coming, they are asking people to leave the area.There is also an upgraded Level 2 ‘Get Set’ Evacuation near Burpee Hill Road that is impacting 32 homes. This comes after a landslide in the area on Monday.
The Red Cross opened a shelter for people impacted by those evacuations at the Mount Baker Presbyterian Church off Main Street.
County officials say pets can be accommodated.Schools in the Concrete School District are closed Tuesday. The district will continue to monitor conditions to make decisions for later this week.You can find more school closures across western Washington here.
6:20 a.m.: How you can help
GoFundMe has updated their list of verified fundraisers and non-profits providing help to those affected by the flooding.
To donate to Washington and Pacific Northwest flood relief fundraisers, click here.
6:09 a.m.: Flooding impacting local blood supply
The flash flood evacuation from the Green River levee breech is near Bloodworks Northwest’s Renton Lab and Donor Center.
Officials say the stored blood supply remains safe, but the donor center is closed.
Critical blood storage, supplies and vehicles were moved to a different location, and upcoming blood drives may be affected.
Bloodworks Northwest said more than 300 potential donations have been canceled since last week, which created a shortage.
The company is asking donors of all blood types are needed. To donate, click here.
6:04 a.m.: Evacuation efforts in Pacific, WA
Valley Regional Fire Authority crews are working to help residents evacuate in Pacific.
Officials said about 100 residents have been evacuated and no injuries have been reported.
The affected areas primarily are S of 1st, and E of Butte, S of Stewart, and Skinner Road.
5:20 a.m.: Tracking school closures and delays
Several school districts in western Washington announced delays.
Here is the latest list.
5 a.m.: New evacuation orders in Pacific
Early Tuesday morning, police in Pacific announced after 1:30 a.m. there was a Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation order due to a levee break on the White River.
The evacuation order affects the areas east of Butte and South of Third.
National Weather Service Seattle issued a Flash Flood Warning before 1:45 a.m. Tuesday.
Tuesday weather forecast
Heavy rain, gusty winds and mountain snow returns to western Washington by Tuesday evening, with the potential to push river levels even higher and knock out power to thousands due to downed trees.
The Skagit, Snoqualmie, Green, White, Cedar, Cowlitz, Stehekin and Skykomish rivers are back under Flood Warnings.
A Flood Watch remains in effect for parts of Western Washington through Thursday afternoon. (FOX 13 Seattle)
A Winter Storm Warning and Winter Weather Advisory will be in effect Tuesday afternoon through late Wednesday for heavy mountain snow.
Green River levee fails, Flash Flood Warning
A Flash Flood Warning was activated on Monday after a Green River levee failed in Tukwila, prompting evacuations in areas downstream from the levee break.
While the warning was canceled just before Monday evening, the Desimone levee breach was at one point described as “life-threatening” and reportedly threatened nearby structures.
Most of western Washington remains under a Flood Watch through Thursday due to the rainy forecast ahead, along with already high river levels.
Road closures in Western Washington
Several critical roadways across western Washington are closed due to weather effects, including highway washouts that will continue to impact travel.
On Interstate 90, eastbound lanes of the freeway are closed near North Bend due to a landslide. Additionally, though not weather related, all westbound lanes are closed near Cle Elum due to construction of the Bullfrog Road overpass.
U.S. 2 Stevens Pass is closed at Tumwater Canyon after a section of the highway was washed out by flooding last week. It’s blocked between Skykomish and Leavenworth, and there is no estimated time for when the road will reopen. Highway 410 is also closed at Enumclaw due to a washout.
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The Source: Information in this story came from the websites and social media pages of various agencies and emergency management departments across western Washington, and FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
NC State (16-2-4)
NC State secured a 2-1 victory over Saint Louis on Saturday, weathering a late Billiken rally to hold onto the win. After dominating the middle portion of the match, the Wolfpack survived a tense final 10 minutes following a successful Saint Louis penalty conversion.
The Wolfpack offense broke through in the 69th minute when Donavan Phillip scored off a clinical sequence involving Isaac Heffess and Calem Tommy and ending in a perfectly placed header. Taig Healy quickly doubled the advantage at the 72:04 mark, burying another header assisted by Riley Moloney to put NC State up 2-0.
Saint Louis found a lifeline in the 80th minute. Following a foul in the box by NC State’s Justin McLean, Quinten Blair stepped to the spot and converted the penalty kick to cut the deficit to one.
Defensively, both goalkeepers remained busy. NC State’s Logan Erb made two crucial saves, including a stop on Jack DiMaria in the 85th minute to prevent an equalizer. Saint Louis’ Jeremi Abonnel finished with four saves, notably denying Ibrahim Conde and Frankie DeFrancesco in quick succession to keep the Billikens within striking distance early in the second half.
Washington (15-6-2)
Behind a dominant multi-point performance from Charlie Kosakoff, Washington defeated Furman 3-1 in the semis to advance to the national championship. The Huskies controlled the tempo from the opening whistle, outshooting the Paladins and consistently testing the frame.
Washington’s offense ignited late in the first half. Zach Ramsey opened the scoring in the 32nd minute, converting a pass from Alex Hall. Kosakoff, who was a constant threat throughout the match, doubled the lead in the 40th minute with an unassisted strike to give the Huskies a 2-0 cushion at the break.
Despite a more aggressive Furman side in the second half, Washington put the game away in the 86th minute. Asher Hestad, appearing as a late substitute, found the back of the net off a surgical assist from Kosakoff. Furman managed to spoil the shutout just over a minute later when Luke Hutzell scored off a double assist from Braden Dunham and Connor Dunnigan, but the Paladins could not find a path to a comeback.
Furman goalkeeper Ivan Horvat delivered a heroic performance in defeat, recording eight saves to keep the score respectable. His work was highlighted by a string of four saves in the second half against a relentless Washington counter-attack. Washington’s Jadon Bowton earned the win, making one key save on a Wilfer Bustamante attempt late in the first half that could have switched the momentum.
Bolt transitions into role after driving impact as Fractional CMO earlier this season
Washington, D.C. (12/15/2025) – The Washington Spirit today announced the appointment of Kim Bolt as Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, a newly created executive role that reflects the club’s continued evolution into a high-performance, growth-oriented organization.
Bolt transitions into the role after joining the Spirit earlier this season as Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, where she played a key role in strengthening the club’s marketing strategy, analytics foundation and demand-generation efforts during a pivotal stretch of the year.
In her expanded role, Bolt will oversee Marketing, Communications, Brand, Strategy and Analytics, with a mandate to build a modern, data-driven commercial engine that accelerates fan growth, deepens engagement, elevates the Spirit’s brand and supports the club’s long-term ambitions on and off the pitch.
With more than 20 years of marketing and strategy leadership across technology, fitness and sports, Bolt brings deep experience scaling mission-driven brands. Her career includes senior leadership roles at Google, Lyft, Under Armour and Disney, as well as serving as Chief Marketing Officer of the Washington Nationals. An expert in marketing technology centered around fan data, Bolt has also advised League One Volleyball and served as Fractional CMO for OnDeck Partners, an Avenue Sports Fund portfolio company focused on minor league baseball.
“As we evolve from a team that wins into an organization built for sustained excellence, Kim’s experience and mindset are exactly what we need,” said Kim Stone, CEO of the Washington Spirit. “She understands this market, this moment and the scale of the opportunity in front of us. Her global brand experience, strategic rigor and early impact with our organization strengthen the foundation we’re building and position us for long-term, sustainable growth.”
A former youth soccer player, Bolt was drawn to the sports industry by her belief in its unique ability to create emotional connection and lifelong memories, a passion shaped early by her family’s love of the game. Throughout her career, Bolt has championed a leadership style grounded in empathy, resilience and accountability. She is committed to supporting women in sports and business and believes high performance and personal balance can, and should, coexist.
“The first time my daughters came to a Spirit match, they memorized the roster and their eyes lit up when they saw a player who looked like them,” said Bolt. “That was the moment I knew I wanted to be part of this organization. Having worked closely with the team this season, I’ve seen firsthand the ambition, the talent and the opportunity ahead. I’m honored to step into this role and help build a brand and growth engine that matches the excellence we’re striving for on the field.”
Bolt resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband, three children and two dogs. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as well as a master’s degree in Communications and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Cornell University. As the Spirit’s first Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer, Bolt will lead the club through the offseason and into the 2026 season, helping shape the next chapter of the organization’s growth.
About The Washington Spirit
The Washington Spirit is the premier professional women’s soccer team based in Washington, D.C. and plays at Audi Field in Buzzard Point. The Spirit was founded on November 21, 2012, and is an inaugural member of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) the fastest growing sports league in the US. The club is home to some of the best players in the world who have won championships for both club and country. For more information about the Spirit, visit WashingtonSpirit.com and follow the club on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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