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The Government Accountability Office reported Thursday that the U.S. Secret Service handled 83 security incidents between 2015 and 2025, yet updated its protection policies after only 25 of them. Investigators found the agency frequently failed to record why it left a policy unchanged, even after drones appeared near presidents and candidates, according to the report carried by the Associated Press.
One gap was drone policy, which stayed the same until an unmanned aircraft helped enable the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The gunman there flew a drone over the crowd for about 11 minutes, then positioned himself for a shot that nicked the president's ear. Earlier drone events went unaddressed too, among them a drone that touched President Barack Obama's motorcade in 2015 and one flown roughly 200 feet over a Bernie Sanders rally.
The review also found the Secret Service missed a required four-year deadline to refresh 8 of its 22 protection policies. A memorandum with the Diplomatic Security Service that divides responsibility for the president's overseas security has not been updated since 1991, despite a rule requiring annual review. As written, it does not account for newer threats such as drones.
Nathan Tranquilli, the acting head of the GAO, said the Secret Service carries out what he called a "zero fail mission" under heavy strain, and that some updates slipped as staff shifted time and energy elsewhere. The report, released through Senator Chuck Grassley's office, made three recommendations, including a requirement that officials document their reasoning whenever an incident does not trigger a policy change.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, agreed with all three and said it plans to make changes. The findings land after a run of protective lapses, including a man who reached Trump's West Palm Beach golf course with a rifle and an armed man who got past barriers at April's White House Correspondents' Dinner. Congressional oversight of the Secret Service has intensified since Butler, with lawmakers pressing for clearer records of how the agency weighs each threat.
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