The Secret Service is racing to modernize protection around the president as threats grow more frequent and technologically complex—but the agency’s assurances of readiness are undercut by risks it openly admits it has not solved.

The most immediate emerging danger is the weaponized drone. Deputy Director Matthew Quinn said the agency is developing offensive and defensive systems, including an AI- and radar-guided device that can disable hostile drones and capture them with a net. Yet he conceded that “swarms are a huge problem and a big threat” and that “the swarm problem is solved. It’s not.”¹

That contrast captures the agency’s broader posture: planning aggressively for threats while acknowledging that technology, particularly battlefield innovations from Ukraine, may outpace existing defenses. Director Sean Curran said officials must assume attacks are possible or risk being “caught flat-footed.”¹ The concern is not limited to sophisticated adversaries; even a small drone carrying explosives could threaten a rally, concert or sporting event.

The volume of threats is rising as well. Curran reported 10,000 threats against protectees so far this year, a 40% increase over the previous year among full-time protectees. He attributed part of the increase to the internet’s ability to make public figures and information more accessible, while Quinn pointed to worsening mental-health pressures and political polarization. The agency says it does not classify threats by party, even as outside research has found shifts between left- and right-wing violence over time.¹

The agency is also trying to repair institutional weaknesses exposed by the 2024 Butler assassination attempt. Staffing and training have expanded, new medical and armored vehicles have been added, and presidential travel plans have grown more flexible. But an inspector general’s report found that the Secret Service “missed multiple opportunities to detect, prevent, and disrupt” the attack.¹

Quinn’s blunt summary remains the agency’s governing priority: “The mission is to protect the president of the United States.”¹ The unresolved question is whether that mission can keep pace with threats that are multiplying faster than the agency’s safeguards.