60 Minutes Transcript: Secret Service confronts rise in threats to protectees

The United States Secret Service was created 161 years ago when Abraham Lincoln signed it into law. That same day he was fatally wounded by an assassin. Since then the service’s mission has evolved from catching counterfeiters to protecting the lives of presidents, their families, and other top officials.

Today in the age of AI, the threats are not just from a lone assassin’s bullet but autonomous attack drones. The U.S. is a country that feels on edge. The Secret Service told us the number of threats is way up against its protectees, especially President Trump. He has been the target of more assassination attempts than any other president. So we wanted to speak to the director of the agency, Sean Curran. He’s been an agent for 25 years and is now leading the Secret Service that’s in the line of fire. 

Norah O’Donnell: How would you describe the current threat environment in this country?

Sean Curran: It’s like we’ve never seen before. The threats on our full-time protectees are up just over 40% since they– than they were last year. That’s a massive increase.

Sean Curran is the 28th director of the United States Secret Service. He told us that since January there have been 10,000 threats on the people they protect. 

Norah O’Donnell: 10,000 threat cases–

Sean Curran: Threat cases.

Norah O’Donnell: –just this year?

Sean Curran: And the year’s not over. 

Curran and his deputy director, Matthew Quinn spoke to 60 Minutes in their first joint interview.

Norah O’Donnell: What’s driving that?

Sean Curran: Look, I think a lot of it has to do with the internet. You know– people are more accessible. Information is more accessible. It’s– it’s definitely new to us.

In the last two and a half years, there have been three known attempts on President Trump’s life: at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, his Florida golf course, and the White House Correspondents’ Dinner where a shooter breached the security perimeter.

Norah O’Donnell: President Trump is one of the most polarizing political figures in American history. Is that in some way leading to the increase in these threats?

Sean Curran: We are an apolitical organization. We’re here to protect who we’re– we’re sworn to protect. 

Matt Quinn: Look, I would say there’s people on both sides of the aisle that either love or hate any president. I think the biggest factor we’re dealing with today is– mental health issues for sure. And more people are being pushed over the edge in either direction.

Sean Curran: The world is different than what it was 20 years ago. You know, social media changes people.

Norah O’Donnell: Do more threats come from the left or right?

Sean Curran: We don’t weigh it that way. We– we just look at, you know, who– who is, you know, making a threat. We investigate it. We run it down, each and every threat.

Research by the Center for Strategic and International Studies showed a spike in incidents – at the local and national level – from the left in 2025. It was the first time left-wing attacks have been higher than right-wing attacks in 30 years. This year that trend has reversed with more attacks coming from the right so far.

Eight months into a war with Iran, the threats from outside the country are also growing.

Norah O’Donnell: They have vowed revenge. How do you deal with that when you’re in charge of protecting the president? 

Matt Quinn: Turn on the TV and you can see the funeral where there are massive banners saying “Kill President Trump.” So do we recognize the threat environment has increased? Absolutely. How we do it and how we change– that’s where we prefer to stay in the– in the background.

Few people know the risks more than Director Curran – who just two years ago was the lead agent protecting President Trump when he was campaigning on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania. 

Curran was among the agents who shielded President Trump when Thomas Crooks fired eight rounds at the stage from a rooftop 155 yards away.

Norah O’Donnell: You’ve not talked a lot about what happened in Butler, until now. 

Sean Curran: I haven’t really reflected on it. I’ve kept myself busy. I’ve– I’ve just worked and worked. I’ve gone from assignment to assignment so that I’ve probably taken my mind off of it. It’s what we train to do. It’s what you never want to do.

Norah O’Donnell: What goes through your mind as the lead agent?

Sean Curran: I mean we were face to face. And then I have to think about the next move. You don’t have time to think about anything else. I am his vest. You know, I wear my vest for him. It’s not for me.

Norah O’Donnell: You were the lead agent in charge. Is it true that you had requested additional resources and were denied?

Sean Curran: I’d rather not get into the past. I will tell you that I did request additional resources, and I’ll leave it at that.

A congressional hearing led then-Director Kimberly Cheatle to resign over the breakdown of security that day. The newly re-elected Donald Trump put his lead agent in charge of the Secret Service. 

This past June the final government report on Butler was released. 

Norah O’Donnell: The Inspector General report found, quote, “The Secret Service missed multiple opportunities to detect, prevent, and disrupt the assassination attempt.” This was a massive failure by many accounts. Can you assure the American people, as the director, that something like this won’t happen again?

Sean Curran: Yes.

Norah O’Donnell: You’re convinced?

Sean Curran: I am convinced.

The agency at every level has been dangerously understaffed for years.

Norah O’Donnell: Are you there now on the staffing?

Matt Quinn: We have 942 people in training today. If you looked back last year, there was maybe 200 in training. 

Since Butler, the Secret Service has expanded the formidable security footprint that surrounds the president. We saw that at the secret service’s training center in Maryland. 

With the president back on the campaign trail ahead of the midterm elections, Curran has added new training to avoid the mistakes of Butler.

Norah O’Donnell: Well, this is the so-called beast. Right?

Sean Curran: Yes.

Even the president’s limousine is getting regular updates, most of them classified. 

 Norah O’Donnell: Oh, my God. It’s so thick.

Sean Curran: Yeah.

Norah O’Donnell: Why is it so thick?

Sean Curran: Well, it’s– it’s– it’s the ballistics that are built into it. Go ahead. I got the door.

Norah O’Donnell: Okay.

The vehicle weighs up to 10 tons, with bulletproof glass and defensive counter measures. 

Norah O’Donnell: So is– and is it my understanding, too, wi– like with the beast that you could– it will protect against a chemical weapons attack, too?

Sean Curran: I don’t want to get into its capabilities. But– it’s– it can do a lot.

Director Curran added this medical response truck because of what he saw in Butler. It houses a trauma unit and a field surgeon ready to treat gunshot wounds.

And this intimidating looking armored personnel carrier is new to the president’s motorcade.

Norah O’Donnell: Why would you need a vehicle this big?

Matt Quinn: When you look at some of the significant civil disturbance events we’ve had, how do you move people? You look at getting teams to the Capitol during the January 6th event. This provides us the ability to get people where they need to be and take care of them. Keep ’em safe.

Norah O’Donnell: Did you have this for January 6th?

Sean Curran: No.

Norah O’Donnell: No. 

Now the Secret Service is preparing for a new threat – unlike any seen in its history.

Last week, the director left headquarters to personally test counter-drone ammunition. 

Deputy Director Quinn is leading the agency’s new multimillion-dollar program to develop offensive and defensive drone capabilities.

Matt Quinn: What you’re seeing right now is one of our fixed wing platforms. This has capability to stay up for a significant period of time, provide real-time situational awareness for– for everybody on the ground. 

The war in Ukraine has become a testing ground for the weaponization of drones. And that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Secret Service.

Norah O’Donnell: What are you learning from the battlefield in Ukraine?

Matt Quinn: Everything. We just had teams come back about two weeks ago. They are on the front. They are on the battlefield with this. We know that technology is going to hit the homeland at some point. So we’re using lessons learned there to build our program and make sure we’re ahead of it before it gets here.

Norah O’Donnell: You mean you think that drone attacks will happen here in the United States?

Sean Curran: We have to plan for it. We have to assume that that– that it’s possible. The second we’re not, we’re gonna get caught flat-footed. 

Norah O’Donnell: Oh, yeah.

Sean Curran: There it goes.

Norah O’Donnell: There it goes, the drone hunter. Okay. 

They showed us the drone hunter, a weapon which uses AI and radar to disable enemy drones and capture them with a net.

Matt Quinn: You heard the operator just say, “Locked.” What that means is that drone hunter just locked on to the offending drone. So now, it’s gonna start hunting.

Norah O’Donnell: Whoa.

Sean Curran: See? Now– so now, it’s coming–

Matt Quinn: What you see is the drone hanging from the drone hunter. So the bad guy drone is now captured. It’s gonna take it to a predetermined safe area. 

The concern is that a small, rudimentary drone like this one could be weaponized with explosives and do serious damage to a large concert, sporting event, or campaign rally. 

Matt Quinn: Just this much of C4 is plenty enough to do a lot of damage, so it doesn’t have to be a big drone.

Norah O’Donnell: You’re saying just even a small amount of explosives could be–

Sean Curran: Could cause a problem.

60 Minutes has learned the Secret Service took down a drone using electronic jamming equipment at the Army-Navy game in Baltimore last December, where the president and members of Congress were in attendance. 

Despite all the new technology, the threat of an attack by a swarm of drones on a place like the White House is still an issue. 

Matt Quinn: Swarms are a huge problem and a big threat. I’d love to tell you the swarm problem is solved. It’s not. I will tell you that at the White House, White House is the safest place on Earth.

Norah O’Donnell: The president posted an AI picture of sort of a drone and a bunch of drones on top of what would be the new White House ballroom. Is that what the future’s gonna look like? 

Matt Quinn: Yes. We’re deploying equipment everywhere that– makes the most sense to ensure that the White House remains the safest place in the world.

Norah O’Donnell: But do we need to militarize all of Washington D.C. in order to protect the president?

Matt Quinn: No. The whole goal of our job is to provide maximum resources without the appearance of overwhelming, overt militaristic sight. There’s ways to do it and still– let Americans maintain their freedoms, and still provide protection at the highest level.

That protection extends to the new Air Force One, a 747 donated by the Middle Eastern country of Qatar. Adding security enhancements to that plane cost the U.S. nearly $400 million, according to the U.S. Air Force.

Norah O’Donnell: Does the Secret Service fully trust a plane that was given by a foreign government?

Sean Curran: We trust that plane.

Norah O’Donnell: Because you checked it all out?

Sean Curran: I won’t get into that, but you can– you can make your assumptions.

Despite his confidence, the Secret Service would not let the president fly home on that plane from Turkey in July after intelligence reports of an Iranian plot to fire a missile at the presidential jet. 

Instead, the Secret Service pulled off a complicated scheme using the old Air Force One. They snuck President Trump into a catering truck. Cabinet members, White House staff, the press, and Secret Service Agents were left on the decoy plane. 

Norah O’Donnell: So when the president said that it was a Secret Service decision to use a decoy plane when leaving the NATO summit in Turkey this summer, why did the Secret Service make that decision?

Sean Curran: Look, that’s not the first time we’ve done that. We wish that wasn’t reported, ’cause that takes some of our tactics away from being able to do something similar again. Certainly wasn’t the first time where we– we did something like that.

Norah O’Donnell: You’re telling me the president’s been on a decoy plane before?

Sean Curran: I didn’t say that. I’m just saying that’s not the first time we did something like that before.

Norah O’Donnell: But your agents were left behind with other staffers on this decoy Air Force One in Turkey. Were you– you were okay with that?

Matt Quinn: When you’re operating in any protective detail with the president of the United States, for any president, the priority is the president. Everyone else, staff, agents, media, personnel involved are not the priority, including our own personnel. As hard as that may be for some to understand, the mission is to protect the president of the United States.

Produced by Michael Rey, Pat Milton, Julie Morse Goff. Associate producers, Matthew Riley and Jaime Woods. Broadcast associate, Gianna Totani. Edited by Thomas Xenakis.

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