Shawn Curran cut the storybook image of a Secret Service agent when, in a dark suit and sunglasses, he fended off Donald Trump from an attempt on his life in Butler, PA, in July 2024.
Nearly two years later, another potential assassin targeted Trump—and Curran is the one answering questions about the agency’s preparedness.
The gunman at a Washington press dinner last month carried out the third direct assassination attempt against Trump in less than two years, prompting lawmakers and others to ask whether the Secret Service had adequately learned security lessons from previous attempts. In 2024, Curran was the head of Trump’s security department. Now, he is the head of the entire Secret Service.
A week after the shooting, authorities have yet to explain clearly what happened that night. Several videos have added to the confusion, including one made public Thursday that shows a security dog identifying the suspect, but the dog’s handler ignoring the warning. Some law-enforcement officials have also privately questioned how the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigation is being handled and why officials are struggling to provide the public with basic facts, according to people familiar with the concerns.
An FBI representative said the bureau provided information to the public at “lightning speed.” appearing on fox newsCurran said all the evidence he has seen shows that the suspect shot a Secret Service officer with a firearm before he was captured.
“Our officer heroically returned fire despite being shot at close range in the chest with a firearm and managed to fire five bullets,” said Curran, who also went to Capitol Hill brief members of congress.
Trump appointed Curran to run the Secret Service last year, choosing a longtime field officer who has spent little time dealing with Washington politics and bureaucracy but promised to do anything to protect Trump. He left behind several high-ranking Secret Service officers to take the job.
According to people familiar with the matter, the president had developed a strong bond with Curran during the “middle years” when Trump was out of power. Curran’s clash with headquarters for greater security at the time was noted and appreciated by Trump. And when an assassin’s bullet grazed his ear in Butler, PA, the president’s view was cemented, people said: Curran was one of the few people he could trust in an agency that had failed to protect him.
Last week, federal prosecutors charged 31-year-old suspect Cole Thomas Allen with attempted murder, alleging he walked through a Secret Service checkpoint armed with a shotgun and a pistol before being stopped outside the Washington Hilton ballroom.
“There’s always room for improvement, right?” Trump said this when asked about the Secret Service in the Oval Office on Thursday. “He broke into the building.” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said the president has confidence in all of his top law-enforcement personnel, including Curran.
Some former law-enforcement officials said the process worked as intended, because the gunman did not attend the dinner.
Retired Secret Service agent Donald Mihalek said, “The Secret Service’s security layers are meant to act as trip wires to catch people.” “In this case, it caught someone—it worked.”
last independent panel Recommends that the Agency appoint a Director with significant external experience, And another former law-enforcement official said Curran may be too loyal to the agency to enact the change it needs.
Their trust is so strong that a White House official recalled talking to the president about an event, and Trump jokingly said he would only attend if Curran approved of it.
Ron Layton, a former top Secret Service official, said there is always an intimate relationship between the head of the detail and the protected individual. “You see that person more than your family,” Layton said. “Sean actually told her, no matter where it is, no matter what, wherever you go, I’ll be there with you.”
Curran joined the Secret Service in 2001. He served as a top agent on Trump’s detail during his first presidential term and took over his security in 2021.
This role put him in almost daily contact with Trump during court hearings for the prosecution in New York, Washington, Atlanta and South Florida in the midst of the post-presidential campaign.
Trump then also faced threats from Iran, and according to a former Trump aide, an errant private drone that aides believed could have been from Tehran prompted discussions about removing him from an event at his golf course in Los Angeles.
The former aide said Secret Service officials at the time rejected some of Curran’s requests for more resources, including countersniper measures and ballistic glass at incidents. Those requests were initially rejected given the limited resources typically provided to former presidents, but were approved after Butler, people familiar with the matter said.
As the possibility of Trump going to jail grew more likely, the Secret Service made preliminary plans to continue protecting him in case he was detained. In an interview with CBS last year, Curran said he had told Trump he was willing to go behind bars with him.
“Look, if that were the case, I would be sitting right next to him,” he said. “That’s how much I cared about him. I just felt that he deserved the same level of protection that any of our protected individuals should have. There’s nothing I wouldn’t have done for him.”
Curran is respected among agents and known as “AB” or “all business,” said a person who knows him.
Although he has developed a personal relationship with the president, Curran and his team will also have to contend with his anger when informed of the sanctions.
In one example, the Secret Service told Trump that he could not play a hole on a golf course because they felt it was too exposed. The president initially resisted and only relented when one of his agents threatened to drive the armored limousine — a nearly 20,000-pound vehicle known as “the Beast” — to the hole, the former aide said. It would have torn up the manicured grass of the course.
Last July, the Secret Service said it had implemented or was in the process of taking action on several changes recommended by Congress. They included improving coordination with local law enforcement and the creation of a division dedicated to maintaining the Secret Service’s air-surveillance capabilities.
In the recent history of the Secret Service, a personal relationship with a sitting president has proven to be a reliable motivator in the agency’s ranks. President Joe Biden chose secret service director In 2022, with ties to her family, Kimberly Cheatle became close to Jill Biden as an agent during Joe Biden’s vice presidency. Cheater Resigned in week After the Butler shooting.
Curran’s to-do list includes not only restoring the agency’s reputation, but also preparing for years to come, as the U.S. heads toward midterm elections, this summer’s World Cup and planned celebrations for the country’s 250th birthday. In 2028, the agency will have to deal with the summer Olympics in Los Angeles and the presidential election, along with two nominating conventions.
The Secret Service has stepped up its recruitment process in preparation by sending applicants for three days of interviews and tests in Virginia and Orlando, Florida, to speed up the recruitment process.
When Curran took the job, his background included spending more time wearing an earpiece than keeping his ear to the ground in Washington’s budget and political fights. But the early months of his tenure included a windfall for the agency: a more than $1 billion investment from what was generally known as Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill.”
New recruiting initiatives include offering and broadcasting recruiting bonuses up to $75,000 super bowl commercials It reportedly cost around $2 million and was created by action-film director Michael Bay.
The ad featured the iconic photo of Curran helping a bloodied Trump off the Butler’s stage. It also included photos of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, at the same location where last month’s press dinner took place: the Washington Hilton.
C. Write to Ryan Barber ryan.barber@wsj.comannie linsky annie.linskey@wsj.com and maggie severns maggie.severns@wsj.com
