Former Secret Service officials warn of low-tech threats facing Trump after latest Mar-a-Lago breach
Who's accountable for the results?
A deadly confrontation at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend is the latest in a string of high-profile security incidents involving President Donald Trump, as former Secret Service officials warn that low-tech, lone actors now pose one of the toughest challenges to presidential protection.
"It should be quite clear to all of us by now that Trump is the most threatened president in the history of the U.S.," former Secret Service agent William "Bill" Gage told Fox News Digital Monday, pointing to multiple high-profile incidents in recent years. Unlike past presidencies, where threat levels often subsided over time, Gage said, "the longer he's president, the more these attacks keep happening."
Gage said the most difficult cases to prevent are often the least sophisticated. The recent incidents, he noted, were "super low-tech attacks by people with zero training," using rudimentary weapons. "If you were standing behind them in line at Starbucks, you wouldn’t have given them a second look," he said.
Gage said the threat landscape shifted over the course of his 12-year career as a Secret Service agent. When he joined the Secret Service in 2002, he said the agency was moving away from what he described as the traditional "lone gunman" model — figures like Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated John F. Kennedy, or international militants such as "Carlos the Jackal," one of the world's most wanted terrorists in the '70s and 80s — and adapting to a post-9/11 world focused on coordinated terrorist networks like al Qaeda and later ISIS.
ARMED MAN SHOT AND KILLED AFTER ‘UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY’ INTO MAR-A-LAGO: SECRET SERVICE
"But if you look at Butler and the two incidents at Mar-a-Lago, those were super low-tech attacks," Gage said. "The low-tech actors are the ones that tend to slip through the cracks."
He also warned of a potential copycat effect when details of such incidents become public.
"If it were up to the Secret Service, they would never report any of these incidents ever," Gage said, arguing that widespread coverage allows others to "study what happened" and attempt to refine it.
In today’s hyperconnected political climate, he said, that dynamic adds another layer of complexity for agents trying to stop the next threat before it materializes.
In the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, a 21-year-old man identified as Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service agents and a local sheriff’s deputy after entering the secure perimeter of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Authorities say Martin drove through the …
Who's accountable for the results?
A deadly confrontation at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend is the latest in a string of high-profile security incidents involving President Donald Trump, as former Secret Service officials warn that low-tech, lone actors now pose one of the toughest challenges to presidential protection.
"It should be quite clear to all of us by now that Trump is the most threatened president in the history of the U.S.," former Secret Service agent William "Bill" Gage told Fox News Digital Monday, pointing to multiple high-profile incidents in recent years. Unlike past presidencies, where threat levels often subsided over time, Gage said, "the longer he's president, the more these attacks keep happening."
Gage said the most difficult cases to prevent are often the least sophisticated. The recent incidents, he noted, were "super low-tech attacks by people with zero training," using rudimentary weapons. "If you were standing behind them in line at Starbucks, you wouldn’t have given them a second look," he said.
Gage said the threat landscape shifted over the course of his 12-year career as a Secret Service agent. When he joined the Secret Service in 2002, he said the agency was moving away from what he described as the traditional "lone gunman" model — figures like Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated John F. Kennedy, or international militants such as "Carlos the Jackal," one of the world's most wanted terrorists in the '70s and 80s — and adapting to a post-9/11 world focused on coordinated terrorist networks like al Qaeda and later ISIS.
ARMED MAN SHOT AND KILLED AFTER ‘UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY’ INTO MAR-A-LAGO: SECRET SERVICE
"But if you look at Butler and the two incidents at Mar-a-Lago, those were super low-tech attacks," Gage said. "The low-tech actors are the ones that tend to slip through the cracks."
He also warned of a potential copycat effect when details of such incidents become public.
"If it were up to the Secret Service, they would never report any of these incidents ever," Gage said, arguing that widespread coverage allows others to "study what happened" and attempt to refine it.
In today’s hyperconnected political climate, he said, that dynamic adds another layer of complexity for agents trying to stop the next threat before it materializes.
In the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, a 21-year-old man identified as Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service agents and a local sheriff’s deputy after entering the secure perimeter of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Authorities say Martin drove through the …
Former Secret Service officials warn of low-tech threats facing Trump after latest Mar-a-Lago breach
Who's accountable for the results?
A deadly confrontation at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend is the latest in a string of high-profile security incidents involving President Donald Trump, as former Secret Service officials warn that low-tech, lone actors now pose one of the toughest challenges to presidential protection.
"It should be quite clear to all of us by now that Trump is the most threatened president in the history of the U.S.," former Secret Service agent William "Bill" Gage told Fox News Digital Monday, pointing to multiple high-profile incidents in recent years. Unlike past presidencies, where threat levels often subsided over time, Gage said, "the longer he's president, the more these attacks keep happening."
Gage said the most difficult cases to prevent are often the least sophisticated. The recent incidents, he noted, were "super low-tech attacks by people with zero training," using rudimentary weapons. "If you were standing behind them in line at Starbucks, you wouldn’t have given them a second look," he said.
Gage said the threat landscape shifted over the course of his 12-year career as a Secret Service agent. When he joined the Secret Service in 2002, he said the agency was moving away from what he described as the traditional "lone gunman" model — figures like Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated John F. Kennedy, or international militants such as "Carlos the Jackal," one of the world's most wanted terrorists in the '70s and 80s — and adapting to a post-9/11 world focused on coordinated terrorist networks like al Qaeda and later ISIS.
ARMED MAN SHOT AND KILLED AFTER ‘UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY’ INTO MAR-A-LAGO: SECRET SERVICE
"But if you look at Butler and the two incidents at Mar-a-Lago, those were super low-tech attacks," Gage said. "The low-tech actors are the ones that tend to slip through the cracks."
He also warned of a potential copycat effect when details of such incidents become public.
"If it were up to the Secret Service, they would never report any of these incidents ever," Gage said, arguing that widespread coverage allows others to "study what happened" and attempt to refine it.
In today’s hyperconnected political climate, he said, that dynamic adds another layer of complexity for agents trying to stop the next threat before it materializes.
In the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, a 21-year-old man identified as Austin Tucker Martin of North Carolina was shot and killed by U.S. Secret Service agents and a local sheriff’s deputy after entering the secure perimeter of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Authorities say Martin drove through the …
