Tag: News

• An Amazon manager said they resisted a directive to put a worker on a performance improvement plan.
• The manager said they faced severe stress and sought FMLA to cope.
• An Amazon spokesperson said the PIP process isn't used to try to reduce the employee base.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with an Amazon employee who sought to go on medical leave because of a stressful situation that developed with their manager. This person spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid jeopardizing their career. Business Insider has verified the worker's identity and employment at the company. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

The part of the organization I'm in used to be pretty robust. There was a thriving culture of going above and beyond. Managers gave credit when credit was due and took responsibility for mistakes. Initially, it was a good division. But then there have been several rounds of layoffs.

The leadership style has become pretty cutthroat. It seems like they skipped the process of evaluating the impact that the members of the group made and instead focused on tenure or other superficial metrics that were easy to gather.

I had a direct report who was performing extremely well, and I was expected to put them in Focus and then Pivot even though they were performing. I was explicitly told to. This person was passionate and creative with the work that they did. This person would definitely not be on the list of people I would have chosen to get rid of.

We have senior staff meetings monthly. The themes can vary. Oftentimes, when the theme is related to products or related to some specific aspects like security, there are notes. But when it's about HR or quotas on staff members or on URA — unregretted attrition — there aren't notes, and we're told that this is a confidential conversation.

In one staff meeting, my boss said this year's target for unregretted attrition should be doubled. It varies across Amazon but used to be from 5% to 15% at the absolute most. But this time, it doubled. So it now can vary from 10% to 30%.

The fight

When it came to my direct report, I tried to fight back. I tried to convince my manager by providing them with a one-pager about the contributions they had brought in just over a year and some of the bottlenecks that they were able to unclog.

Later on, I believed one of the reasons I was put in Focus was because I resisted doing what I was told instead of actually doing what I thought was the right thing.

My manager asked me to jump on a call, and they basically told me, "Hey, there's no way you can fight this. It's already decided." And they said, "My hands are tied as well. So, you can waste our time and get yourself on the radar, or you can just find a way to make this happen smoothly."

When I finally gave in to my manager's request for my direct report, I was told to put them in Focus for 30 days. The system allows up to 60 days. Then, for Pivot, I was told to pick two weeks.

So, I put in the 30 days, but then I kept extending it. Because if I were to put 60 days, management would have noticed. With the extensions, it came to 90 days. I was able to give the person three months rather than one in Focus.

The reckoning

Eventually, management caught up to it. Amazon can be clueless, but not to that degree.

My manager got pinged by HR about this situation — that I'd been messing with this system. Then I got a message in Slack from my manager saying we had to jump on a call.

That conversation was not great. I got a sense that my manager was potentially going to put me in Focus because of how they were berating me. First, they said that I caused an issue for them with HR, that there was a certain quota that the manager had to meet, and that my direct report was supposed to be gone by now. The fact that I had been able to get away with this was because my manager wasn't checking. My manager said I put a target on their back by doing this. And they said they trusted me with this task, and I fucked it up for them.

It was a short conversation — like 10 minutes. As soon as I got off the call, I filed for a leave of absence. During the conversation, my boss didn't say anything regarding whether they were going to do anything to me. But their expression made it clear that they were openly pissed.

Amazon's Disability & Leave Services department provided me with a document and gave me 30 days to get it filled out by a medical provider. The entire FMLA process was a hurdle for me. I didn't even know, initially, that I could obtain medical leave based on my mental state.

Before I got FMLA, I was extremely distressed. I went to my physician. They were interested in helping me out, but when I told them that I might want to take FMLA, they said we should refer you to this specialist and then that specialist.

I spent almost a month — every freaking day — going from appointment to appointment. I wasted like $3,000 in copays for all of the appointments. That's insane. Especially at a time when I was not getting paid. It took me almost the entire month to complete the FMLA form. I was really stressed. Once the approval came through, I got 60% of my base pay.

I had to call my insurance company about mental health benefits. I was having panic attacks every 20 minutes. I was in a state of mental collapse — spiritual and mental collapse — at that point. The company suggested I call 988, the mental health hotline. I didn't call because they would take me to the ER or something. They also referred me to a counselor. This counselor saw the state I was in, and they clearly knew that I needed the time that I needed and was willing to provide the documentation for FMLA.

The panic attacks were because of the fear that I actually had to come back to the workplace and then suffer whatever was waiting — on top of the bills that I needed to pay.

I later heard from my manager while I was on FMLA, and they informed me that I had been put on Focus. They tried to entice me to come back. They said some variation of, "I'll get you out of Focus. Just come back now." I didn't believe them. I figured my manager was trying to get me to come back before my leave was over because they were facing their own deadline to get rid of me.

After my manager realized they weren't going to be able to get me to go back early, they revealed that they were tasked with getting me out by a certain date. I think the reason they revealed this was because they appreciated that I'd told them about how I made FMLA work.

Then, my manager made clear that the due date they were facing for pushing me out was before my return from FMLA. That was one of the objectives they had to meet to get themselves out of Focus. As a result of my decision not to come back early, my manager said they would not be able to meet one of the requirements of their Focus plan. So, they were going to go on FMLA to avoid getting put in Pivot.

I was shocked that the manager, as part of a plan for them to get out of Focus, was tasked with pushing me out of the organization by enticing me back before my FMLA expired. That way, they could put me in Pivot to ensure I would leave and save themselves from Pivot. It was like a diabolical game of musical chairs.

Margaret Callahan, an Amazon spokesperson, told BI via email:

Business Insider declined to give us any information to review this individual employee's experience, and based on the questions we were asked, there appear to be a number of inaccuracies about our performance management process in their report. Like most companies, we have a performance management process that helps our managers identify who on their teams are performing well and who needs more support. The vast majority of our colleagues regularly meet or exceed expectations, but for the small number of employees who don't, we provide coaching and opportunities to help them improve. If they're unable to do that, then we may have to discuss them leaving the company. To suggest we use our performance management process to drive any other outcome, such as reducing our employee base, is wrong.

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• Warren Buffett met with Barack Obama years before he became President.
• The billionaire said the rich should pay more tax, and flagged wealth inequality as a big problem.
• Buffett attributed a chunk of his success to luck and defended inheritance taxes.

Warren Buffett called for higher taxes on the rich, bemoaned wealth inequality, and credited a big part of his success to luck in a conversation with Barack Obama long before he became president.

The billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO also blasted generational wealth and complained about his unfairly low tax rate while speaking to the then-Illinois senator.

Obama recounted his meeting with the billionaire at Berkshire's headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska in his 2006 book: "The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream."

Here are Buffett's six best quotes to Obama:

1. "Though I've never used tax shelters or had a tax planner, after including the payroll taxes we each pay, I'll pay a lower effective tax rate this year than my receptionist. In fact, I'm pretty sure I pay a lower rate than the average American. And if the president has his way, I'll be paying even less."

2. "The free market's the best mechanism ever devised to put resources to their most efficient and productive use. The government isn't particularly good at that. But the market isn't so good at making sure that the wealth that's produced is being distributed fairly or wisely.

   "Some of that wealth has to be plowed back into education, so that the next generation has a fair chance, and to maintain our infrastructure, and provide some sort of safety net for those who lose out in a market economy. And it just makes sense that those of us who've benefited most from the market should pay a bigger share."

3. "When you get rid of the estate tax, you're basically handing over command of the country's resources to people who didn't earn it. It's like choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the children of all the winners at the 2000 Games."
4. Obama asked how many billionaires agreed with Buffett about raising taxes on the rich. Buffett responded: "I'll tell you, not very many. They have this idea that it's 'their money' and they deserve to keep every penny of it. What they don't factor in is all the public investment that lets us live the way we do."
5. "I happen to have a talent for allocating capital. But my ability to use that talent is completely dependent on the society I was born into. If I'd been born into a tribe of hunters, this talent of mine would be pretty worthless. I can't run very fast. I'm not particularly strong. I'd probably end up as some wild animal's dinner."
6. "I was lucky enough to be born in a time and place where society values my talent, and gave me a good education to develop that talent, and set up the laws and the financial system to let me do what I love doing — and make a lot of money doing it. The least I can do is help pay for all that."

• "Outlander" aired eight episodes of season seven in 2023 before taking a lengthy midseason hiatus.
• It's now been announced that the second half of season seven will begin airing on November 22, 2024.
• Sam Heughan and Caitríona Balfe will be back alongside fan favorites from earlier seasons.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for "Outlander" season seven.

We're in one of the longest Droughtlanders to date, but there's light at the end of the tunnel. The team behind the much-loved Starz drama has announced the premiere date for the remaining episodes of season seven.

As audiences may already know, the current season is the show will be the longest since season one, consisting of 16 episodes. While the first eight were released last summer, the second half will begin airing on Friday, November 22, 2024.

When viewers last saw Jamie (Sam Heughan) and Claire (Caitríona Balfe), they had just completed the journey back to Scotland after an unexpected sequence of events at the second battle of Saratoga. Meanwhile, Brianna (Sophie Skelton) and Roger (Richard Rankin) were faced with the prospect that their young son had been kidnapped and possibly taken through the standing stones at Craigh na Dun.

From which cast members you can expect to see in the remaining episodes to details on the Diana Gabaldon books the episodes will be based on, here's everything we know about the second part of "Outlander" season seven.

The second part of "Outlander" season seven will premiere on November 22, 2024.

Season seven was given a supersized 16-episode order after season six was truncated as a result of delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the first half aired in 2023, audiences were told that the remaining eight episodes would be released sometime in 2024.

We now know when exactly that will be, thanks to an announcement delivered to fans on "World Outlander Day" on June 1. The annual holiday celebrates the anniversary of the publication of Diana Gabaldon's first book in the best-selling historical fantasy series.

This year, Starz, the network behind "Outlander," marked the day by sharing the news that the highly anticipated second half of season seven will premiere on Friday, November 22.

Audiences can look forward to one episode being released every week on Fridays at midnight ET on all Starz streaming and on-demand platforms. On linear, the new episodes will debut weekly at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

The new episodes will see Jamie and Claire's marriage "tested like never before," according to a synopsis.

A synopsis of the new episodes shared by Starz alongside the teaser trailer released on June 1 indicates that Jamie and Claire are not necessarily on safe ground just because they're back in Scotland.

"The perils of the Revolutionary War force them to choose between standing by those they love and fighting for the land they have made their new home," it reads.

The synopsis continues: "Meanwhile, Roger and Brianna face new enemies across time and must battle the forces that threaten to pull their family apart. As loyalties change and painful secrets come to light, Jamie and Claire's marriage is tested like never before."

"With their love binding them over oceans and centuries, can the MacKenzies and Frasers find their way back to each other?"

All of the episodes of season seven were shot between 2022 and 2023.

The 2023 actors and writers' strikes in Hollywood put a pin on almost all productions for a while and caused something of a backlog, but "Outlander" fans will be pleased to learn that the second part of season seven was filmed way ahead of time between 2022 and early 2023.

The cast and crew returned to the set in Scotland to begin filming both parts of the season back to back in April 2022 and confirmed via an announcement on Twitter that filming had concluded in February 2023.

Heughan also shared the news with his Instagram followers, alongside a photo of himself and Balfe smiling while holding a clapperboard. 

"That's a WRAP!!! 220 shooting days, a whole year of Outlander," he wrote. "THANK YOU to our amazing crew who have worked so hard and to our brilliant fans…we CANNOT WAIT for you to see season 8 @outlander_starz."

The episodes will be based on the events of the seventh and eighth "Outlander" novels by Diana Gabaldon.

Since it began airing in 2014, the romance drama has roughly adapted one book a season. 

However, since season six was truncated, the first part of season seven actually covered some later events from Diana Gabaldon's sixth "Outlander" installment, "A Breath of Snow and Ashes," before delving into the events of the seventh book, "An Echo in the Bone."

Executive producer Maril Davis has told Business Insider that the second part of the season will continue to wrap up the events of "An Echo in the Bone" before launching into the action of the eighth book, "Written in My Own Heart's Blood."

That will allow the writers to fully dedicate the show's eighth and final season to the ninth book in the series, "Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone." While there is another book in the works,  it's unlikely that it will be published before the show ends.

Sam Heughan, Caitríona Balfe and the rest of the main cast are all expected to return for the new episodes.

"Outlander" wouldn't be "Outlander" without its two main stars, and it's impossible to think of the show continuing without them, so, of course, Heughan and Balfe will be returning.

The pair, who have both held the additional role of executive producers since season five, play 18th-century Scottish warrior Jamie Fraser and his time-hopping, devoted wife Claire Randall Fraser.

In addition, audiences can expect to see the couple's daughter, Brianna MacKenzie (Skelton), and her husband, Roger MacKenzie (Rankin), back on screen.

Given their importance to Brianna and Roger's storyline, their new acquaintance, Buck MacKenzie (Diarmaid Murtagh), and adversary, Rob Cameron (Chris Fulton), will also make an appearance.

Young Ian (John Bell), Lord John Grey (David Berry), and the recently reintroduced William Ransom (Charles Vandervaart) will also be back, Starz has confirmed.

The Hunter siblings (Izzy Meikle-Small and Joey Phillips) will also return, but Davis has hinted that we might not see so much of them, telling BI: "We've left them behind for a little bit, but we are going to come back to them."

 

 

Audiences can also look forward to seeing some fan favorites from the show's earlier seasons.

It was announced in late 2022 that several characters not seen since the show's early days will rejoin the action in the show's seventh season.

These include Dougal MacKenzie (Graham McTavish), Laoghaire Fraser (Nell Hudson), Brian Fraser (Andrew Whipp), Joan MacKimmie (Layla Burns), Ian Murray (Steven Cree), and Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek).

Deadline reported that Jenny Murray, Jamie's sister will also make an appearance, but she will be played by Kristin Atherton, instead of Laura Donnelly, who originated the role.

Given that some of the returning characters are dead, audiences may be wondering how exactly they will be written back into the story. While flashbacks are possible, showrunner Matthew B. Roberts hinted at another option.

"One of the many joys of our epic story is the element of time travel which allows us to revisit some of our favorite characters in different times and places," he said in a statement to BI.

This will be the penultimate season of "Outlander" after it was announced the eighth season would be its last.

In January 2023, Starz confirmed the show would return for one final run after season seven.

"For nearly a decade, 'Outlander' has won the hearts of audiences worldwide, and we're pleased to bring Claire and Jamie's epic love story to a proper conclusion," said Kathryn Busby, Starz's original programming president, in a statement.

Like "Game of Thrones," another much-loved TV drama adapted from a long-running series of books, "Outlander" will likely end its run on television before the final novel is released.

However, fans won't have to say goodbye to "Outlander" for good, as a prequel series has been greenlighted. "Outlander: Blood of My Blood" will tell two parallel origin stories: how Jamie's parents came to meet and Claire's parents' war-time romance.

Find out everything we know so far about the prequel series, including who has been cast in the main roles as Jamie and Claire's parents, here.

Check out the teaser trailer for the second half of "Outlander" season 7

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djb82JXEPRE?si=BsfMoSI0y_Dj9OSt&w=560&h=315]

 

• I'm American and my husband is Spanish. We spent time between the two countries. 
• Our 5-year-old daughter is being raised with both cultures. 
• Kids in Spain speak multiple languages, including local dialects, and kids behave at meal time. 

I'm American, and my husband is Spanish. We have a 4-year-old daughter and spend time in both countries, immersing ourselves in both cultures. My daughter is being raised as an American but with the cultural inputs from her time in Spain.

The city we live in in Spain — Zaragoza — is a vibrant midsize city full of families, which was part of the appeal of our part-time move. In addition, it is where my husband grew up.

I've noticed some differences between Spanish kids and American kids.

Kids often speak multiple languages

My daughter has made some friends in Spain already, and we're so impressed by their ability to speak multiple languages. These kids are learning French, Spanish, English, and even Catalan in school. I'm blown away by their inherent ability to tackle these languages at a young age.

But the standard of education also seems to be higher in Spain. My husband likes to tell me that he never saw a multiple-choice test before he came to the US and jokes that in math, they used a pen and not a pencil, so there were no erasing mistakes. This makes him sound so old, but really, I think the schools in Spain are just more old-fashioned.

There's an emphasis on mealtime being family time

In Spain, kids are taught to be seen and not heard. I'm on the fence about whether this is a positive or negative thing, but I'll admit I've seen more poorly behaved-kids in the US than in Spain. I hate seeing parents plug their kids into tablets or cellphones, something that never happens with Spanish kids.

Even the toddlers are still out and about with their parents having tapas or eating their very late dinner at 9 p.m. and onward til midnight.

My daughter is part of our conversations, and we get to talk about serious things or the unicorn drawing she made that day.

That said, it is also still common for people to smoke cigarettes in Spain, including during meal times. It's accepted as the norm even with kids around, which I don't love.

Kids eat less junk food and sugar

In Spain, kids can go home for lunch during the school day, where a family member will cook them a home-cooked meal. I have never seen this happen in the US.

Also, fast food is virtually nonexistent, and the Spanish version of sweets (like cookies and cakes) seems to lack flavor and sugar, so kids are probably well-mannered because they are not running on sugar.

My daughter is more adventurous with food than her US friends, who tend to gravitate toward chicken nuggets and mac and cheese.

They spend more time outdoors

In the US, we have the luxury of space, but in Spain, most big cities offer only a shoebox apartment with no yard to run in. So kids need a place to be kids and get energy out. There are playgrounds in virtually every plaza, and a bonus for the parents — terrace cafés are often adjacent. Parents can enjoy a drink and tapas while kids chase each other around the playground.

Sports like soccer are huge for children, who are often quite active after school. Kids love to ride their bikes, and due to the pedestrian and public transportation-friendly cities, children are forced to walk more anyway.

My daughter loves her time in both countries, and making friends from different nationalities. She knows family is everything — a more Spanish notion — and that also kids are allowed to be kids, more like in the US.

• Retailers' profits are seeing a pinch as inflation cools — and in some categories, even reverses.
• For Costco, raising membership fees can offset some of that deflationary bite.
• The wholesale club prides itself on ultra-low markups, and membership fees help it do that.

Consumer prices cooled significantly in the past month, with some categories ticking into reverse as inflation was nearly flat.

A fall in prices (known as deflation) can put a pinch on retailers' profits as they must offer better promotions and discounts to keep shoppers coming back.

For Costco, deflation tends to come a bit earlier, since the company prides itself on adhering to an ultra-low markup strategy that leaves less room for experimentation than a traditional retailer might have when prices are falling. (Given its size and buying power, Costco is credited with helping prices come down too.)

In periods of normal inflation, Costco prefers to make more money by simply selling more stuff: "We're a top line company, we want to drive sales," former CFO Richard Galanti was fond of saying.

But Costco also makes a lot of money from the membership fees it charges to gain access to its ultra-low prices. In fact, fees represented around two-thirds of the company's profits last quarter.

As grocery prices remain flat or tick down, those fees will offset some of the deflationary bite Costco faces this year.

When Costco is looking for more fee revenue, its preference is ordinarily to simply sell more memberships (which it has been doing aggressively for the past year).

The other option is to raise the price of the membership — a move the company resisted until this week when it announced the basic membership would go up by $5 in September for the first time in seven years. Executive memberships will increase by $10.

With 52 million paid memberships affected by the move, that translates to roughly $390 million of additional revenue per year, which the company says will be largely reinvested into the business.

As CNBC's Jim Cramer noted, "Management said it wasn't going to raise its membership fee until they saw inflation under control."

While Cramer pointed out the company's statements that it didn't want to add further pressure to members' wallets during high inflation, Costco's business model shows it stands to benefit from the timing of this hike. Plus, it's an option that few other retailers have.

So what does it mean for US households' grocery bills that Costco chose to pull this financial lever? It could be that the years-long run of rising prices is finally nearing an end.

• Evan Vucci is an AP photographer who documented the aftermath of an assassination attempt on Trump. 
• Vucci said he understood the moment's significance immediately after shots rang out.
• He snapped several photos of the attempt, including a now-famous shot of a defiant Trump with his fist raised.

The Associated Press photographer who snapped a now widely reshared image of former President Donald Trump's fist pump described how he covered Saturday's shooting from various angles in the heat of the moment.

Evan Vucci, who has covered Trump for years, said he understood the incident's significance after hearing "several pops" over his left shoulder.

"I knew immediately it was gunfire," Vucci said in a video posted on the AP's website. "So I looked at the stage and I saw the Secret Service agents rushing to President Trump."

Vucci said he then ran to the rally stage and snapped several photos of agents piling on top of Trump and the Secret Service's counter-assault team arriving.

That was when he took his now-famous photo of Trump, blood streaked across his face, pumping his fist in the air as Secret Service agents ushered the former president off-stage.

"In my mind, it all happened really fast," Vucci said. "At the moment I heard the shots being fired I knew that this was a moment of American history that had to be documented."

Vucci's photo of Trump has become a social-media rallying cry among Republicans and MAGA figures, who say it is a symbol of the former president's strength and defiance.

Trump was speaking at a rally on Saturday when he was interrupted by gunshots. His right ear was bleeding.

In a statement released after he was escorted away, the former president said a bullet had struck his ear and was "fine."

The FBI has classified the incident as an assassination attempt and identified the shooting suspect as a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.

Authorities said the suspect was shot dead. A spectator in the crowd was killed during the assassination attempt, and two others were critically injured.

• Kate Middleton will attend the Wimbledon men's final on Sunday, Kensington Palace has confirmed.
• The princess will present the trophy to the winner — either Novak Djokovic or Carlos Alcaraz.
• It will be the second time she's officially been seen in public since sharing her cancer diagnosis.

Kate Middleton is set to make her second public appearance of 2024 at the Wimbledon Championships men's singles final on Sunday, Kensington Palace has confirmed.

The Princess of Wales will take a seat in the royal box to watch the match before presenting the trophy to either last year's winner, Carlos Alcaraz, or seven-time Wimbledon champion, Novak Djokovic.

"The Princess of Wales, Patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, will attend the Gentlemen's Singles Final of The Championships, Wimbledon on Sunday 14th July," Kensington Palace said in a brief statement.

Kate has been the patron of the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club for the past eight years, after taking over the role from the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2016.

Prince William has traditionally accompanied his wife to Wimbledon, but this year he will be watching England take on Spain in the final of the men's soccer European Championships, which is taking place in Berlin.

The royal couple's elder two children have also previously attended Wimbledon, with both Prince George and Princess Charlotte making an appearance in 2023.

The event will mark the second time the princess has made a public appearance since she announced in March that she had been diagnosed with cancer.

Kate, 42, also attended the Trooping the Colour parade last month, which celebrates the monarch's official birthday.

Her attendance came as somewhat of a surprise as it was believed that she would be stepping away from royal duties while she undergoes "preventative chemotherapy."

However, she said in a statement released alongside a new official portrait that she was making "good progress" and hinted that she would "join a few public engagements over the summer."

"I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty. Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body, and allowing myself to take this much needed time to heal," Kate wrote.

• The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks as the suspect in the Trump rally shooting.
• The shooting occurred on Saturday evening during Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
• Trump was escorted to safety. He posted to Truth Social that a bullet hit the upper part of the ear.

The FBI has named the suspect in the shooting at former President Donald Trump's Pennsylvania rally on Saturday evening.

An agency representative confirmed to Business Insider early on Sunday morning that the suspect is Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel, Pennsylvania.

The FBI added that the investigation into the shooting remains ongoing and active and also called for tips from eyewitnesses and anyone with information.

Trump was escorted from the stage after gunshots rang out during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooting suspect was neutralized. A rally attendee was killed; two others were critically injured.

Secret Service agents were photographed rushing on stage to his aid, and blood was visible on Trump's face — particularly around his ear. Trump later posted to Truth Social that he had been shot in the upper ear.

The Secret Service said on Saturday that the former President is safe. Trump was seen arriving in New Jersey shortly after midnight, surrounded by heavily armed guards and Secret Service members.

This story is developing. Please check back for more updates.

• Donald Trump said he was shot in the ear, and a bystander was killed during a rally in Pennsylvania.
• An eyewitness described to the BBC seeing a man with a rifle crawling on a nearby rooftop.
• The US Secret Service quickly came under scrutiny for failing to prevent the incident.

The US Secret Service has come under intense scrutiny following a fatal shooting that left former President Donald Trump wounded at his rally Saturday night.

The shooting, which killed one rally attendee and left two others critically injured, is being investigated as an assassination attempt.

The shooter was killed, the Secret Service said.

As news of the shooting was still breaking, notable figures were quick to question the Secret Service and its leadership following the shooting.

While the investigation remains in its early stages, law enforcement experts told Business Insider the historic shooting will certainly prompt a major review of Secret Service procedure.

Matt Shoemaker, a former intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency, went as far as calling the shooting a "major failure" of the Secret Service.

"I've been to these sorts of events before, and there are layers upon layers of security," Shoemaker said. "So for the alleged shooter to be on a rooftop, with a clear shot to the podium — it is mind-boggling to say that this was overlooked."

Trump said in a post on Truth Social several hours after the 6:15 p.m. shooting that a bullet hit the upper part of his right ear. In videos of the shooting, the former president could be seen clutching his hand to his bloodied face and later raising his fist triumphantly while being escorted off the stage by the Secret Service.

A Secret Service spokesperson directed Business Insider to public statements posted by the federal agency on social media and declined to answer specific questions about the incident.

US Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi, in a post on X, wrote that the suspected shooter "fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside" the venue of former President Trump's rally.

"US Secret Service quickly responded with protective measures, and the former president is safe and being evaluated," Guglielmi's statement continued, noting that the FBI had been notified about the shooting.

In a separate statement, the FBI indicated it would be taking the lead on the investigation. Representatives for the FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

In a press briefing shortly after midnight, FBI special agent Kevin Rojek noted "it is surprising" that the shooter managed to fire several rounds before being neutralized by the Secret Service.

Representatives for the Secret Service were not present at the press conference to respond to questions about the incident.

Shoemaker told BI it appeared that the presence of the shooter "slipped through the cracks," despite firsthand reports of a witness who told the BBC that he saw and attempted to alert authorities to the presence of a man with a rifle on a roof nearby the rally.

"Maybe they didn't pay too much attention to it. Maybe they did take it seriously, but there just wasn't enough time before the shots rang out," Shoemaker said. "But the fact that the shot even happened — that the only thing right now that is saving the Secret Service is the fact that President Trump was not killed, which means that they were relying on pure luck that the individual that they're charged with protecting did not die — if they're relying on luck, it means that there is a problem and it means that there's a failure somewhere."

Shoemaker wasn't alone in his assessment that the shooting would prompt a major examination of the Secret Service's policies and procedures.

Ken Gray, a retired FBI agent and lecturer in the criminal justice department of the University of New Haven, told Business Insider that, given the fact that the shooter was outside the cleared rally event, he expects future events will need to "expand the perimeter of the secured zone or move indoors." 

However, Gray noted it is "too early to make an assessment" about whether the incident should be considered a complete security failure, especially given the flood of unconfirmed information circulating about the shooting online.

Among the highest-profile critics was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who, for the first time, publicly endorsed Trump and criticized the Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle. Cheatle previously served as the head of security for the soft drink company Pepsi before leading the Secret Service.

"So before being put in charge of protecting the PRESIDENT, she was guarding bags of Cheetos …" Musk wrote in a post on X that included a screenshot of her biography and work history.

Trump's campaign, as well as the Republican National Committee, have indicated the party's planned convention in Milwaukee this week will proceed following the rally shooting. It is unclear what if any, modifications will be made to the security procedures at the event.

An investigation and more visible security measures

Shoemaker said he expects to see bulletproof glass surrounding the former president in future public appearances, as well as a more pronounced use of drones for aerial surveillance at his events.

"I would expect this to at least initial reports of basic findings to be released within the next 48 to 72 hours," Shoemaker said. "If they take longer than that, it's going to raise a lot of questions, just in terms of what the problem is — is the problem that they don't have enough expertise looking at this?"

GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson vowed in a post on X that the House would investigate the "tragic events" that occurred at the rally.

"The American people deserve to know the truth," Johnson wrote. "We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP."

The FBI will lead an official investigation into the incident, according to a statement released Saturday evening. The agency indicated it is "close" to identifying a suspect in the shooting, but a formal identification is pending confirmation through a DNA test.

• In American history, four out of 46 US presidents have been assassinated.
• Other presidents, including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, escaped attempts on their lives.
• Former President Donald Trump says he was shot in the ear at a Pennsylvania campaign rally on Saturday.

Four out of 45 US presidents have been assassinated over the course of American history.

Many more chief executives escaped assassination attempts thanks to heroic bystanders, diligent guards, misfiring pistols, and sheer luck.

Most recently, former President Donald Trump said he was struck in the ear during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday after a shooter opened fire from a nearby rooftop. A spokesperson said Trump was "fine" following the incident. The FBI said they are investigating the shooting as an assassination attempt.

Two presidents who were assassinated escaped previous attempts on their lives.

On a hot August night in 1864, a sniper shot Lincoln's hat off his head — missing his skull by inches — as he took a solo ride on his favorite horse "Old Abe," according to "1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History." Lincoln was later shot and killed by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth, just five days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee.

Almost a century later, in 1960, retired postal worker Richard Paul Pavlick crammed his car with dynamite and plotted to ram the vehicle into Kennedy's limo in Palm Beach, Florida, Smithsonian magazine reported. He was motivated by his intense hatred of Catholics and the Kennedy family, but backed off when he saw that the president was with his wife and young children. Pavlick was later arrested and institutionalized until 1966, three years after Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while visiting Dallas, Texas.

These 13 other presidents all experienced serious assassination threats and ultimately survived — and these are only the most dramatic, most-publicized instances. Undoubtedly, the Secret Service has thwarted many more over the years.

Here are 13 presidents who escaped attempts on their lives.

Andrew Jackson survived an assassination attempt in 1835 when the shooter's gun misfired.

On a misty January day in 1835, Richard Lawrence, an out-of-work house painter who believed he was the 15th-century English king Richard III, walked into the US Capitol Building.

President Andrew Jackson was leaving the funeral of a House representative when the English national confronted him in the East Portico, brandishing a pistol.

He raised the gun at Andrew Jackson and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

"Let me alone! Let me alone!" Jackson yelled at Lawrence, Smithsonian magazine reported. "I know where this came from."

Lawrence discarded the weapon, produced a second pistol, and aimed the new gun at Jackson. It also misfired.

According to legend, Jackson subsequently flew at the man and thrashed him with his cane. Whether or not that's true, Lawrence's assassination attempt was unsuccessful. Smithsonian magazine reported that national anthem lyricist Francis Scott Key prosecuted his trial, where he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Lawrence spent the rest of his life institutionalized.

Time reported that the chance that both perfectly functional pistols would misfire was about one in 125,000. Jackson's survival may have depended on the dampness in the air that day.

President Theodore Roosevelt was saved by the length of his speech after an assassin shot him in the chest with a .38-caliber revolver in 1912.

In 1912, Roosevelt was running for the presidency on the Bull and Moose ticket. Saloon-owner John Schrank had begun stalking the former president after having an unusual dream.

According to "Killing the President: Assassinations, Attempts, and Rumored Attempts on U.S. Commanders-in-Chief," Schrank wrote: "In a dream I saw President McKinley sit up in his coffin pointing at a man in a monk's attire in whom I recognized Theodore Roosevelt. The dead President said, 'This is my murderer — avenge my death.'"

Fortunately, Roosevelt had his notes with him when he was shot on October 14 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — 50 pages of them, folded in his breast pocket next to his metal glasses case. These objects slowed the bullet and saved Roosevelt's life.

The ex-president continued to speak after letting his audience know he'd been shot, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Association.

"I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose," he said in his speech.

He continued: "The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very long speech, but I will try my best."

He finished the rest of his speech with a bullet in his ribs, where it remained until his death in 1919.

In 1928, President Herbert Hoover was nearly killed while visiting the Andes.

In 1928, President Herbert Hoover was nearly killed while visiting the Andes.

Argentine anarchists attempted to blow up his train, but the would-be assassin was seized before he could plant the bombs on the tracks.

After learning of the thwarted plot, Hoover tore the front page story from the newspaper so his wife Lou Henry Hoover wouldn't worry, according to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. The 31st president is said to have quipped that while he was unconcerned, "It's just as well that Lou shouldn't see it."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt survived a shooting in Miami in 1933.

Seventeen days before Franklin D. Roosevelt's first presidential inauguration, the president-elect disembarked from his yacht and made a short speech in Miami, Florida on February 15, 1933. The Chicago Tribune reported that Chicago mayor Anton Cermak then approached Roosevelt for a short chat afterwards.

At that moment, anarchist Giuseppe Zangara opened fire. Roosevelt emerged from the attack unscathed, but Cermak was mortally wounded, along with onlooker Mabel Gill.

It's unclear who Zangara intended to assassinate. He was arrested and went to the electric chair after 10 days on death row.

Ten years later, Soviet officials claimed to have uncovered a Nazi plan to murder Roosevelt and other world leaders at the Tehran Conference, according to "Eureka Summit: Agreement in Principle and the Big Three at Tehran, 1943."

Harry S. Truman evaded two attempts on his life.

Harry Truman's daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel, alleged in her father's biography that a Zionist gang had sent him and several other White House officials mail bombs in 1947, The New York Times reported. The alleged incident was never publicized and apparently ended with the Secret Service defusing the explosives.

The more famous attempt on Truman's life came about on November 1, 1950. Puerto Rican nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola attempted to storm the Blair House, where Truman lived while the White House was being renovated, according to the Harry S. Truman Library.

Torresola and White House police officer Leslie Coffelt died in the attack. Truman commuted Collazo's death sentence to life, which was then commuted to time served by Jimmy Carter in 1979.

A man targeted President Richard Nixon in 1974 by attempting to crash a plane into the White House.

Arthur Bremer, who ultimately shot and paralyzed Alabama governor George Wallace, first considered targeting President Richard Nixon, The Washington Post reported.

A more high-profile Nixon assassination attempt came about on February 22, 1974. Samuel Byck shot and killed a police officer at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport, raced through the security checkpoint, and broke onto a Delta flight to Atlanta, The New York Times reported. Hours earlier, he had mailed a tape to the Washington Post detailing his plan to hijack an airliner and crash it into the White House, in order to kill Nixon.

Once on board the aircraft, he shot both pilots, killing one, after he was told that they could not take off. Police shot Byck through the plane's window, and he killed himself before he could be arrested.

President Gerald Ford survived two back-to-back assassination attempts in California in September 1975.

At a packed park in Sacramento, California on September 5, 1975, Manson Family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme drew a gun after Ford reached into the crowd to shake her hand.

There was no round in the firing chamber, so the gun misfired, NBC News reported. Fromme was grabbed by the Secret Service. After receiving a life sentence, Fromme was released from prison in 2009, two years after Ford's natural death.

Only a few days later, self-proclaimed radical Sara Jane Moore shot a revolver at Ford in San Francisco on September 22. The shot missed thanks to the efforts of ex-Marine and bystander Oliver Sipple, who grabbed Moore's arm, the San Francisco Gate reported. Moore was paroled in 2007, a year after Ford died.

Police arrested a man who sought to assassinate President Jimmy Carter in 1979.

On May 5, 1979, police arrested drifter Raymond Lee Harvey outside the Civic Center Mall in LA, 10 minutes before Jimmy Carter was scheduled to give a speech there.

Harvey had a starter pistol with several blank rounds, The Atlantic reported. Harvey claimed to be part of a cell that sought to assassinate Carter, but due to his history of mental illness, the men he named as co-conspirators were later released.

John Hinckley Jr., who would later attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan, also considered shooting Carter in 1980, but backed out, the Dayton Daily News reported.

President Ronald Reagan came close to losing his life in an assassination attempt on March 30, 1981.

The New York Times reported that John Hinckley Jr. opened fire as the president walked to his limousine from the Washington Hilton around 2:30 p.m. on March 30, 1981. Press Secretary James Brady suffered brain damage from the attack and eventually succumbed to his injuries years later, and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and DC police officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded.

Reagan was shot once in the chest and suffered serious internal bleeding and a punctured lung. He received emergency surgery at George Washington University Hospital, where he remained for several weeks.

After the attack, Reagan famously retained his sense of humor. He's quoted as telling his wife, "Honey, I forgot to duck" and jokingly asking whether the surgeons due to operate on him were Republicans, Time magazine reported.

Hinckley claimed to have carried out the attack to impress actress Jodie Foster, whom he was stalking. He was institutionalized and released in 2016, after being deemed to no longer pose a threat to others.

President Bill Clinton was the subject of several assassination plots during his stint in the White House.

Three assassination attempts alone occurred in 1994. Ronald Gene Barbour sought to kill Clinton on his daily jog through the National Mall, The New York Times reported.

Later that year, Frank Eugene Corder rammed a red and white single-engine airplane onto the White House lawn in an attempt to kill Clinton, The New York Times reported. Corder died in the crash, while the Clintons were unharmed.

A month later in October, Francisco Martin Duran slipped a suicide note into his pocket and fired numerous shots at the north lawn, the Los Angeles Times reported. A group of tourists ultimately tackled Duran and he was arrested.

An assassination attempt later took place abroad during Clinton's visit to Manila in 1996. A bomb was discovered under a bridge that the president's motorcade was scheduled to travel over. The bomb plot was the work of al Qaeda, Reuters reported.

A grenade was thrown near the stage where President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili spoke in 2005.

Robert Pickett, an ex-IRS employee with a history of mental illness, fired several bullets at the White House in February 2001, before a Secret Service agent shot him in the knee, The New York Times reported. President George W. Bush was exercising in the residential area of the White House at the time. Pickett was treated in a Bureau of Prisons psychological institution for two years following the incident.

A few years later, in 2005, Bush had a closer call while traveling abroad.

Bush and then-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili appeared at a 2006 rally in Tbilisi, Georgia. During the event, Georgian national Vladimir Arutyunian tied a red handkerchief around a live hand grenade and threw it at the presidents and other officials, The Washington Post reported.

However, the explosive didn't detonate. The handkerchief had blocked the grenade's safety lever. Arutyunian escaped from the rally, and later killed a Georgian agent during his arrest. He was sentenced to life in prison for the assassination attempt.

Barack Obama

While Barack Obama was still a presidential candidate in 2008, two white supremacists named Paul Schlesselman and Daniel Cowart conspired to murder 102 African American men — while driving around in a getaway car with the words "Honk if you love Hitler" scrawled on it.

CBS News reported that their conspiracy would culminate with planning the assassination of Obama, but police uncovered the detailed plot and arrested the duo long before they were close to launching their cross-country murder spree.

Later, in 2011, Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez opened fire on the White House after claiming that Obama was the anti-Christ, The Washington Post reported. He crashed his car while escaping, and was later arrested and sentenced to 27.5 years in jail. The Obamas were not in the White House at the time of the shooting.

In April 2013, a letter addressed to Obama tested positive for ricin, a deadly poison. James Everett Dutschke was sentenced to 25 years in jail for the ricin mailing plot, Politico reported.

Then, in 2015, CNN reported that three men — Abror Habibov, Abdurasul Juraboev, and Akhror Saidakhmetov — had been arrested after plotting to kill Obama and bomb Coney Island in their efforts to join ISIS.

Donald Trump said he was struck in the ear when a shooter opened fire during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday

Former President Donald Trump was rushed offstage after shots rang out during a rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. He was photographed raising his fist in the air with blood smeared on his face.

Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he was shot by "a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear." One bystander died and two others were critically injured in the shooting, which is being investigated as an attempted assassination.

Authorities have not yet confirmed that Trump was shot in the ear.

The shooting wasn't the first attempt on Trump's life. At a 2016 campaign rally in a Las Vegas strip hotel casino, Michael Steven Sandford attempted to grab a police officer's gun. As he was taken into custody, the British national told officers that he was hoping to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The Guardian reported that Sandford has a history of mental illness, which Judge James Mahan acknowledged in his hearing, saying that Sandford needed help and wasn't a "hardened criminal" — or even intent on assassinating Trump.

"I know saying sorry is not enough," Sandford told the court, the Guardian reported. "I really do feel awful about what I did. I wish there was some way to make things better. I have cost taxpayers so much money. I feel terrible."

On May 6, KYT 24 reported that Sandford had been deported to the UK, after being in US custody for about 11 months.