Charlie Kirk assassination raises new Secret Service security concerns

The Secret Service has its hands full combating an unprecedented level of political threats, an issue underscored in the wake of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. 

While the Secret Service is initiating a series of changes to bolster its security practices following two assassination attempts on President Donald Trump last year, the agency is now operating at an extremely heightened state amid an unprecedented level of threats, according to experts. 

“The Secret Service now has to play at a level of enhanced security that they’ve never dreamed of before. I think [Secret Service Director Sean Curran] is doing a good job in leading that effort,” Tim Miller, who served as a Secret Service agent during Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton’s administrations, told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “But here’s the bad news for the Secret Service: They don’t have time. This threat is now. Can you imagine – they already shot our president once. Can you imagine if they’re able to kill him?” 

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Kirk, 31, died after he was shot in the neck during his “American Comeback Tour” at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. The assassination comes a year after two attempts to take the president’s life. 

Twenty-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump from a rooftop during a campaign rally in July 2024, and one of the eight bullets shot grazed Trump’s ear. The gunman also shot and killed Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old firefighter, father and husband attending the rally, and injured two others. 

Ryan Routh was apprehended and charged with attempting to assassinate Trump at his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in September 2024. Routh was charged with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, among other things, and his trial kicked off on Thursday. 

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Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pumps his fist as he is rushed offstage by U.S. Secret Service agents after being grazed by a bullet during a rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker)

Both assassination attempts against Trump are…