An agency spokesperson said that Rowe ‘is currently enjoying a well-deserved break before his retirement.’
Ronald Rowe, who led the U.S. Secret Service after the attempted assassination of then-candidate President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, is retiring, according to an agency spokesperson.
Rowe, the deputy director of the U.S. Secret Service, previously served as the agency’s acting director after Kimberly Cheatle
resigned in July 2024 amid scrutiny over the agency’s handling of the assassination attempt.
After taking office on Jan. 20, Trump
appointed Sean Curran as the director of the Secret Service.
Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi told The Epoch Times on Tuesday that Rowe will be stepping down after taking “a well-deserved break” from work without specifying a timeline.
“Deputy Director Ronald Rowe, a valued executive and leader of the United States Secret Service, has announced his decision to retire after 26 years of dedicated service,” Guglielmi said in an emailed statement.
Rowe was appointed as the agency’s deputy director in April 2023. He has held various roles since joining the Secret Service in 1999, including chief of staff to the director, deputy assistant director for the Office of Protective Operations, and deputy assistant director for the Office of Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs. During his tenure, Rowe coordinated various major security operations, according to his
biography.
The Secret Service has been under scrutiny following the two assassination attempts on Trump—the
first at his Pennsylvania rally in July 2024, where a bullet grazed his right ear, and the
second at his Florida golf club in September 2024, when police arrested a man suspected of plotting to kill Trump.
As the agency’s acting director, Rowe has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Taskforce investigating the assassination attempts. He
told lawmakers on Dec. 5, 2024, that the Secret Service has been “reorganizing and reimagining” its operations.
“One of the organizational changes: I’ve directed the Office of Protective Operations to initiate and stand up almost an auditing capability to regularly send out folks to evaluate how we’re doing, and also share findings with our office of training,” Rowe said.
An internal review of the incident in Pennsylvania
found that the Secret Service failed to adequately cooperate with local law enforcement personnel, including stationing its agents in a different room from the county’s command post. Communication gaps stemmed from using multiple radio channels and mobile devices, according to the review.
By the time
the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper, Crooks had fired eight shots, including one that struck Trump’s ear. Some of the bullets hit other people at the rally, killing one and injuring two.
Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
