“The magnetometers are a dangerous choke point, and that’s why we make sure our magnetometers are far enough away from not only where the protectees are going to be, but where the events are going to be held,” he adds.
Before every event, Secret Service agents also screen the venue for explosives, weapons, and listening devices, and ask the hotel and event staffers to go through a round of screening to prevent internal staff from harming any White House officials and their families.
“They effectively have tactical control of that site, where the president will be, not the entire hotel,” de Geus says, which he describes as a “360 bubble” around the president.
Agents agree that given the historical challenges of protecting the president at the same hotel where Reagan was shot outside in 1981, it would be logistically safer for the president to attend events on the White House premise, but ultimately, the president, not the Secret Service agents, can make the final decisions on where he wants to attend an event, and there will always be a security risk as long as he is outside of the White House perimeter.