(TheProudRepublic.com) – In new evidence how sensitive Americans are when it comes to injustice, public approval of the Secret Service has plummeted to its lowest in ten years following a security breach during the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump in July.
According to a new Gallup poll, only 32 percent of Americans now view the Secret Service’s performance as excellent or good, while 36 percent rate it as poor.
This represents a significant decline from last year when 55 percent of respondents approved of the agency’s performance and only 13 percent gave it a poor rating, National Review reports.
In 2014, when Gallup first began tracking public opinion of the Secret Service, 43 percent of Americans approved of the agency.
That year, the agency encountered multiple security failures, including an incident where a man armed with a knife penetrated the White House during President Barack Obama’s administration.
Since then, the Secret Service had not seen its approval rating fall below 50 percent until this year.
The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny after failing to adequately protect the former president at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
At this event, 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks fired several shots toward Trump, one grazing his right ear.
The incident sparked widespread bipartisan criticism, which intensified after another assassination attempt on Trump the following weekend.
On September 15, a Secret Service agent engaged and fired at 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, who was concealed in a bush with a rifle at Trump’s Florida golf club.
The confrontation caused Routh to escape in his vehicle, though he was soon apprehended by police.
Secret Service acting director Ronald Rowe acknowledged that agents had not secured the perimeter of the golf course prior to Trump’s arrival, a lapse in security given that golfing was not on Trump’s official schedule for the day.
“The president wasn’t even really supposed to go there. It was not on his official schedule. And so we put together a security plan, and that security plan worked,” Rowe stated.
The survey, conducted from September 3-15, did not reflect responses to the second assassination attempt.
The pollster noted it was uncertain if this latest incident would have significantly altered the Secret Service’s rating, though improvement was unlikely.
An internal review by the Secret Service on Friday highlighted severe “communications deficiencies” during preparations for Trump’s Pennsylvania rally this summer.
Problems identified included poor coordination between local and federal law enforcement, breaches in security protocols, and challenges posed by the venue, among others.
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