It was just two years ago that a fraction of an inch almost changed American history. On July 13, 2024, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler after a bullet grazed his ear. Happily, gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Twenty-four months later, the investigations are largely finished, and the verdict isn’t exactly flattering. Remember too that this all happened under the Biden administration, who wasn’t exactly putting forth their best effort to protect Trump.

The bipartisan House task force, Senate investigators, the Government Accountability Office, and multiple Department of Homeland Security reviews all reached remarkably similar conclusions: this wasn’t the result of one bad break – it was a cascade of preventable failures. Investigators cited poor planning, breakdowns in communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement, unsecured rooftops overlooking the rally, and repeated missed opportunities to stop Crooks before he fired.

The latest bombshell came at the end of June. A new DHS Inspector General report found the Secret Service missed 102 radio transmissions from local police because it failed to establish a joint communications center. Instead, agents protecting Trump received only a handful of phone calls and text messages warning about the suspicious man climbing onto the roof. The report also found a counter-drone system wasn’t fully operational, allowing Crooks to fly a drone over the rally site before the shooting without being detected.

The agency has said it has revamped training, improved communications, expanded aviation and counter-drone capabilities, and overhauled protective planning. However, we all know what happened at the White House Correspondents dinner in April. And the rescheduled event is coming up again on Friday, July 24. Do I feel confident about that? NO.

Two years later, Butler remains a stark reminder that history can turn on inches. President Trump’s life was ultimately saved, but the cascade of security failures leading up to the shooting continues to raise troubling questions.