The Pentagon announced Thursday that it would help protect the main candidates in the American presidential election in order to support the Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting senior political figures.
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The move comes more than a month after the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, a resounding failure for the Secret Service that prompted its boss to resign 10 days later.
“The Department of Defense will provide additional protection” through the election in November and likely through the inauguration in January 2025, Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters.
Secretary Lloyd Austin responded favorably to a request from the department responsible for the Secret Service, she added.
On July 13, the former president was shot in the ear, killing one person and injuring two others at his rally in Butler, in the northeast of the country. Images of Donald Trump, blood running down his face and his fist raised, went around the world.
The fallout from this security fiasco continued last week with, according to the press, the compulsory leave of at least five Secret Service agents.
