Secret Service trained at mock White House that Hollywood producer Tyler Perry built as stage
Secret Service agents used Hollywood producer Tyler Perry's mock White House in Atlanta for a training scenario in 2023 due to the agency's lack of funding for sufficient facilities.
The admission came on The New York Times' podcast, "The Daily," where investigative reporter Eric Lipton discussed the poor conditions of the agency's training equipment and spaces in light of a July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at his campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
"The Secret Service is so short on proper training facilities that they actually sent, on several occasions, their personnel down to the Atlanta area to train at a mock White House that Tyler Perry, the Hollywood producer, had built as a stage there in Georgia," Lipton said in an Oct. 14 episode of the podcast. "It's hard to believe, but that's what the Secret Service has been left with as its options for training its people."
Lipton also noted that the agency has used the front half of a retired, 1960s-style airplane for Air Force One protection training.
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the U.S. Secret Service, told Fox News Digital that in 2014, following security issues at the White House, "an independent protective mission panel recommended that the U.S. Secret Service construct a replica White House to facilitate scenario-based training under real-world conditions."
"Since the actual White House serves as a secure office complex, a national museum, and a family residence, the agency is limited in how and when personnel can train on-site," Guglielmi said. "In 2023, former Director Kimberly Cheatle collaborated with Mr. Tyler Perry and his staff to study the White House replica used for filming in Atlanta. We also conducted a scenario-based training exercise at that facility to assess how a similar model could be utilized in Maryland for training future special agents, officers and partner agencies from D.C., Maryland and Virginia who would respond to a potential emergency or critical incident."
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Perry's replica White House sits on a 330-acre lot on the former Fort McPherson Army base with numerous other set and stage designs.
"Over the past year, we have worked closely with Congress and the Department of Homeland Security to advance the construction planning of the White House Defense Training Facility," Guglielmi said. "We are grateful for Congress’s initial investments, which were crucial in getting this important project off the ground."
Last year, Congress allocated more than $3 billion to the Secret Service, according to a report last month from the Congressional Research Service.
Meanwhile, staffing has fallen slightly from a high of 7,811 Secret Service employees in 2021 to 7,689 employees in 2023, according to the report, while the number of protectees the agency is required to provide service to has nearly doubled since 2015.
Around the time Trump was shot, the Secret Service was also providing protection to the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C.; the Democratic National Convention in Chicago; and the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
"Back in 2014, after an assailant got over the fence and into the White House, that began a conversation that they needed a proper training facility," Lipton said. "It's been over a decade, and still the money has not been appropriated to build this training facility at their site in Maryland."
The July 13 assassination attempt, in particular, has highlighted the Secret Service's need for better training and preparedness after 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks was able to climb onto a rooftop about 130 yards away from where Trump was standing on stage and fire eight rounds, grazing the former president's ear just before he turned his head.
Crooks also fatally shot rally attendee Corey Comperatore, a retired volunteer fire chief, and critically wounded two others, David Dutch and James Copenhaver.
"There are few jobs anywhere where you have to be perfect, and any imperfection, when it comes to protecting the president means, potentially, the life of the president," Lipton said on the podcast. "On any given day, there can't be even the slightest errors in that work, and so it attracts a certain type of person."
Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned after the initial assassination attempt against Trump. Acting Director Ronald Rowe was appointed to the job on July 23, 10 days after the shooting in Butler.
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On Sept. 20, the House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at bolstering Secret Service needs for protection assignments.
"We thank Congress for addressing some of the U.S. Secret Service’s most immediate needs in this heightened threat environment," Rowe said in a statement at the time. "This short-term funding will better equip the U.S. Secret Service to enhance security measures in the months ahead. We look forward to working with Congress on full-year funding to deliver the additional personnel, technology, and equipment our workforce needs to do their jobs."