Bellefontaine native, former White House military officer, shares insights on Trump rally security failures
Link to interview below
By T.J. HUBBARD
Examiner Publisher
Atlas (Josh) Aultman of Queen Creek, Az., shared his insights on a recent segment that aired on ABC 15-Arizona about the Secret Service’s failures in protecting former President Donald Trump during the July 13 assassination attempt at a Butler, Pa., campaign rally.
Aultman, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel with nearly three decades of military experience, served in the White House Communications Agency during the Obama Administration and was tasked with coordinating, among other things, security plans with the Secret Service.
“My part was to make sure the military elements fell in with the Secret Service,” Aultman, now a published author, motivational speaker and podcaster, told the interviewer.
“The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13, we failed,” Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle recently admitted to lawmakers while being grilled on Capitol Hill about the deadly rally shooting.
Cheatle, who formerly worked for PepsiCo, was named director by President Biden in August 2022.
Aultman agreed with Cheatle’s assessment regarding the security failures.
“What happened shouldn’t have happened. There should’ve never been a shot on anyone whose running for office,” the 1996 Bellefontaine High School graduate said during the interview.
Air Force Lt. Col. Atlas (Josh) Aultman, right, a 1996 graduate of Bellefontaine High School, appears with one of his superior officers, Col. Anthony Mullinax, during Aultman’s June 2023 retirement ceremony at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. Aultman, who retired after 30 years’ military service, now does motivational speaking and is an author of leadership and children’s books and podcasts on like topics. (Facebook Photo)
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But he was less harsh than some regarding the SS’s security efforts.
The Secret Service planned appropriately but executed poorly, he said.
“There’s a lot of speculation and everybody’s become a shooting expert.”
Aultman, who has special military operations experience and served in Iraq and Afghanistan, said former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson says it this way, “‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’”
“The Secret Service just got punched in the mouth.”
Aultman said conversations are likely ongoing behind closed doors about severely expanding Secret Service security perimeters.
He said it all comes down to a lack of resources within the agency, budget and staffing. Something he hopes this investigation will change.
Weighing in on lawmakers’ calls for Director Cheatle to resign, Aultman feels her replacement should be someone who has previously held the post.
“So if she were to resign the only thing I would say is acceptable is if someone who has been a director took the job again, because changing leadership in the midst of chaos only introduces more chaos.”