Reality checks can be frustrating when they encounter those heightened expectations, I get it - but enthusiasm does have to be tempered by the facts on the ground. The laws that the previous administration broke with impunity must be adhered to.

Having said that, it has been gratifying to watch as some of the worst offenders get the heave-ho in the most unauspicious and indecorous manner - like the saga of the 'Peace Institute' assault and watching USAID go up in flames.

Those were schweet. 

I know there are places that Americans have their eyes on, watching for vast improvement over the course of the next year. We realize that, our impatience for a sea change aside, the virus infecting our military didn't happen in a day. It's going to take time and ruthless efficiency to square that away.

That the FBI's squandering of its formerly impressive reputation will take a massive restructuring and refocusing before it can do its job - not what it feels like doing - for the country again, instead of for its political masters. The faith and trust issue may never be regained, at least not in my lifetime, but I think Patel is the guy to strip it to the bones for the rebuilding.

The reconstruction of the circus that has been the Secret Service, charged with the protection of the President and his family, as well as our Vice President and select others, has been put in the competent hands of the man President Trump felt would willingly die for him - Sean Michael Curren.

Sean M. Curran is the 28th Director of the U.S. Secret Service, assuming office January 22, 2025.  As Director, Mr. Curran is responsible for the successful execution of the agency’s integrated investigative and protective missions. In this role, he leads a high skilled workforce, comprised of more than 8,200 Special Agents, Uniformed Division Officers, Technical Law Enforcement Officers, and Mission Support personnel.

Throughout his 23-year law enforcement career, Mr. Curran has distinguished himself as a proven leader with notable results, to include directing and leading operational security plans for some of the most complex National Special Security Events in the history of the Secret Service. Most notable, his successful integration of cutting-edge protective methodologies deployed during major site visits and events throughout the 2024 Presidential Campaign, and his seamless oversight of financial resources, human capital, and logistics coordination for the 2016 Presidential Debates. Events of this magnitude require coordination of thousands of campaign visits, collaboration with Federal, state, and local law enforcement partners, and management of a multi-million dollar budget, and 400+ Special Agents.

Prior to his senior executive appointment as Director, Mr. Curran established and served as the Special Agent in Charge of the Donald Trump Detail, where he strategically led the physical multi-state protection portfolio for the 45th President, in a dynamic environment which required executive decision-making, innovation, flexibility, and resourcefulness.

I love how Director Curran's biography uses the very diplomatic 'required executive decision-making, innovation, flexibility, and resourcefulness' to describe his time as head of Trump's campaign detail. He had to be resourceful thanks to the Biden White House purposefully skimping on SS protection resources for the ex-president.

Whoever was running the auto-pen kept shortchanging Trump protective detail of agents and assets, almost as if they wanted someone to take a lucky shot.

We all know they damn near got what they underpaid for.

The agent in charge of setting up security for the Butler rally - a female - and her lackadaisical crew had the locals worried even before the near tragedy happened.

...Close coordination is especially important in states such as Pennsylvania, home to more local police departments than any other state in the country.

But the pre-rally Butler meeting did little to assuage security concerns, according to local officials.

During the week leading up to the rally, representatives from all of the local police departments that had been asked to help secure the Trump event met in nearby Connoquenessing Township to coordinate.

The Butler County Emergency Services Unit, a special weapons and tactical squad, had toured the Butler Farm Show during the week and had identified the AGR building as a threat. In the meeting, Butler County officials raised the issue with the Secret Service, said Goldinger, the Butler County District Attorney, but ultimately, the agency did not post anyone on the roof.

“This was their ballgame,” Goldinger said of the Secret Service.

Local officers didn’t receive a written plan from the Secret Service until 1:30 p.m. on the day of the rally, according to Goldinger — 30 minutes after the doors opened. In the absence of such a plan, local supporting officers set up their own.

On the day of the event, local counter-snipers met with their counterparts in the Secret Service. But they had not been asked to secure or set up a perimeter, said Adams Township Sgt. Ed Lenz, who commands the Emergency Services Unit.

“I’m not sure that it was very clear to the overall Secret Service command what they had actually asked us to do,” Lenz said.

When bullets started flying just as Trump miraculously turned his head, it was Curran and the agents on the stage who leapt to shield the president with their own bodies and then hustle him to a vehicle.

The glaring inadequacies in protection and professionalism were especially obvious from the moment the group got the president to the vehicle. The short, dark-haried female had been behind the president on the podium, looking more frightened and lost than anything as the others tried to carefully but expediently get the wounded president - who only wanted his shoes - safely down the stairs and to the car.

Then she stands there, waving her weapon, until she tries to holster it, and it almost seems her nerves won't let her.

Five agents - four from the Pittsburgh office, including the agent in charge, and one from Trump's detail - were placed on administrative leave.

And the DEI chorus was in full swing. 

Rightfully so, it turns out, as more testimony confirmed during congressional task force hearings about the myriad security failures leading to the Butler attempt on Trump. 

Secret Service director Kim Cheatle's hiring priorities and the lax standards the agency was tolerating in order to achieve her DEI goals...

Embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has unabashedly embraced woke initiatives at the agency ever since she took over two years ago — including recruiting at Pride events, hosting seminars on pronoun use and even bringing in a popular YouTube female daredevil to attract a more diverse workforce.

Cheatle, 53, unveiled her marching orders in the Secret Service’s 2023-2027 strategic plan, demanding agents to be “focused on achieving excellence through talent, technology and diversity,” documents reviewed by The Post show.

“We must embrace diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) across the agency,” wrote Cheatle, a longtime friend of First Lady Jill Biden who was plucked in 2022 from her previous job as global security boss at PepsiCo by President Biden to be the second woman to lead the federal agency. “DEIA must be demonstrated by all employees — leading by example — through ‘every action every day.’”

 ...led to her refusal to appear, and she ultimately resigned.

When Trump was sworn in, he chose the man he felt had saved his life to return the Secret Service to what it had been.

Good agents take dedicated time and effort to cultivate and train in the culture and methods required by the agency for such a demanding and selfless profession. It's not a 'hired and on the street the next day' easy replacement cycle.

The agents who need to go may not immediately be obvious, as the search for new talent begins, but, boy, oh, boy.

When these DEI hires decide to make themselves known?

I'll give them one thing - they unmask for the reveal with a flash.

Two Secret Service officers suspended after brawl outside Obama's home

Video shows uniformed officers fighting as one threatened to 'whoop this girl's a**' in early morning altercation

The two uniformed officers were outside Obama's residence around 2:30 a.m. on May 21 when one called for a supervisor to come immediately before "I whoop this girl's a**," according to an audio recording posted online. 

And while guarding an ex-president's home, no less. 

Curran has to be apoplectic.

📢UPDATE: SECRET SERVICE TAKES ACTION AGAINST WOMEN AGENTS WHO GOT INTO A FIST-FIGHT outside former Pres. Obama's D.C. residence last week. @SecretService spokesperson to @RCPolitics:
"The U.S. Secret Service is aware of an on-duty altercation that occurred between two…

— Susan Crabtree (@susancrabtree) May 27, 2025

...The lack of professionalism was on display during the fight and in a call one of the women made on a recorded Secret Service line to request a supervisor to come to the scene "immediately before I whoop this girl's ass." The woman officer who made the call was upset that her shift replacement was late and assailed her verbally and physically when she finally did arrive to relieve her. Audio of the early a.m. call is now circulating among agents and officers and is attached to this X post.  

It's unclear whether either woman was injured or whether they will be disciplined over the altercation. The fight did not wake anyone in the Obama residence or the surrounding neighborhood, the sources said.  

The incident is raising new concerns among fellow Secret Service agents and officers about the agency's lowering of hiring standards during years of a major DEI push to add more minorities and women to the ranks under previous Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.  

Cheatle resigned under a cloud after the J13 assassination attempt against Donald Trump. The Secret Service for years has experienced low morale and a severe manpower shortage, which is also contributing to lower hiring standards as the agency works to increase its agents and officers... 

The two were immediately suspended. I imagine more to come.

And what a stupid question - of course, DEI is 'still plaguing' the SS. 

Four months, people.

But what delicious irony that the government girls decided to DEI duke it out in front of the Diversity King's home.

I'm dying here.

'Severe manpower shortage' or not, I want to believe, short of a D.C. judge's intervention, the Secret Service agent shortage will now be two feisty chicas greater.

It saves time and money when they out themselves callin' for a can o' whoop ass, even if it is messy and temporarily embarrassing.

Makes it easier for everyone, including HR, with the paperwork.