The Secret Service says threats against President Trump and other protectees have exploded by more than 40% in just one year, and the agency’s own director says social media is changing how people behave.
Quick Take
- Secret Service Director Sean Curran told 60 Minutes threats against full-time protectees are up “just over 40%” from last year.
- The agency has logged roughly 10,000 threat-related cases since January, according to the interview.
- Curran pointed to social media and mental health as the two biggest drivers behind the surge.
- Three separate attempts on Trump’s life have occurred in the past two and a half years, including the Butler, Pennsylvania shooting.
- The agency’s own budget request shows protective-intelligence investigations jumped nearly 60% in one year.
Director Lays Out The Numbers On National TV
Secret Service Director Sean Curran sat down with 60 Minutes on October 11, 2026, and didn’t sugarcoat what his agency is facing. “The threats on our full-time protectees are up just over 40% than they were last year,” Curran said. “That’s a massive increase.” He added that since January, the agency has handled about 10,000 threats against the people it protects.
Those numbers aren’t just talk. The Secret Service’s own written budget testimony to Congress backs up the trend. Protective visits climbed from 5,242 in fiscal year 2023 to 7,175 in fiscal year 2025, a 37% jump. Meanwhile, the agency’s Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information handled more than 12,300 protective-intelligence investigations in fiscal year 2025, nearly 60% above the year before.
Curran Blames The Internet And Mental Illness
Asked why the numbers are climbing so fast, Curran didn’t dodge the question. “I think a lot of it has to do with the internet. People are more accessible. Information is more accessible,” he told 60 Minutes. He went further, saying flatly: “The world is different than what it was 20 years ago. Social media changes people”.
Curran also named mental health as a top factor driving the caseload, calling it “for sure” one of the biggest contributors agency investigators deal with. That matches what other reporting describes: a mix of online threats, foreign actors, mental health crises, lone offenders, and ideologically driven cases, not just one single cause.
It’s worth noting these investigations don’t always start with someone making a direct threat. The agency also opens cases over warning signs like obsessive fixation, stalking, paranoia, and expressed interest in violence. That’s an important distinction for anyone trying to understand what these numbers actually measure, and it doesn’t make the underlying trend any less serious.
Real Attacks, Not Just Online Chatter
This isn’t an abstract statistics debate. The 60 Minutes report points to three actual attempts on Trump’s life over the past two and a half years: the Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally shooting, a scare at his Florida golf course, and a security breach at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Those are real, documented events, not internet noise.
For a conservative audience that watched the Butler rally shooting unfold live and witnessed the left-wing media’s slow, grudging response to it, this track record confirms what many already suspected: the threat environment around President Trump has become genuinely dangerous, not manufactured hype from his supporters or his security detail.
Context Matters, But Doesn’t Erase The Trend
Some context is fair to include here. Back in 2017, then-Director Randolph Alles said threats against Trump were running at a steady six to eight per day, similar to prior presidents, while noting that protecting Trump’s residences and family added extra workload. That history shows protective demands have been building for years, not just since this latest report.
It’s also true the broader threat landscape has worsened across the board. Threats against federal judges rose roughly 150% between 2019 and 2023, and the Capitol Police logged over 8,000 threat cases against members of Congress, more than 50% above 2018 levels. That tells us this isn’t an isolated Secret Service problem. It’s a symptom of a coarsened, increasingly unhinged online culture that conservatives have warned about for years.
VIDEO – Secret Service Boss Tells 60 Minutes About ‘Massive Increase’ in Violent Threats During Trump Era: ‘Social Media Changes People’ https://t.co/HOq2X7tjAF
— Grabien (@GrabienMedia) October 12, 2026
Whatever the precise breakdown between violent plots and lower-level cases, the trend line is impossible to ignore. An agency director going on national television to call a 40% spike “massive” isn’t exaggerating for effect, it’s sounding an alarm Americans should take seriously, especially with a sitting president who has already survived one assassination attempt.
Sources:
mediaite.com, secretservice.gov, cbsnews.com
