President Trump announced Wednesday that he selected Sean Curran, one of the agents who rushed on stage during the Butler, Pa., assassination attempt, to serve as director of the Secret Service in his second term.
“Sean is a Great Patriot, who has protected my family over the past few years, and that is why I trust him to lead the Brave Men and Women of the United States Secret Service,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post.
Trump, 78, touted Curran’s 23 years of experience at the Secret Service and his work as assistant special agent in charge of the Presidential Protective Division during his first term.
The president noted that in that role, Curran had “direct oversight and responsibility of multiple protectees, and enhanced security plans for my residences.”
“Sean has distinguished himself as a brilliant leader, who is capable of directing and leading operational security plans for some of the most complex Special Security Events in the History of our Country, and the World,” Trump added. “He proved his fearless courage when he risked his own life to help save mine from an assassin’s bullet in Butler, Pennsylvania.”
Curran was one of several agents who piled on top of Trump last July after a gunman opened fire on the then presumptive Republican nominee during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa.
He is standing directly to Trump’s left, wearing dark sunglasses, in the iconic photograph of the bloodied 45th president raising his fist in the air under the American flag just moments after the would-be assassin’s bullet ripped through his ear.
“I have complete and total confidence in Sean to make the United States Secret Service stronger than ever before,” Trump wrote.
The Secret Service came under intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the Butler shooting over the numerous security failures that resulted in the near assassination, including not covering the roof that Thomas Matthew Crooks used to aim his rifle at Trump and others in the crowd.
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned in late July following the Butler shooting and was replaced by Acting Director Ronald Rowe.
Trump, 78, was the subject of a second assassination attempt last September, when Ryan Wesley Routh allegedly hid in the bushes with a rifle outside Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., golf course.
A Secret Service agent spotted the would-be assassin as Trump was golfing and thwarted the plot, but the agency faced criticism for not securing the perimeter of the property ahead of the GOP nominee’s golf outing.
