How Secret Service is protecting White House for UFC event

The White House is preparing to host a UFC fight on Sunday, as the nation begins to celebrate its 250th birthday. Recent security threats surrounding the president have many questioning what security will look like to keep the commander-in-chief protected, along with the crowds of people who will gather at the White House Ellipse to watch the fight on large screens. White House officials say the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service have been coordinating and planning security efforts since the fall of 2025, using what officials describe as a “whole-of-agency” approach to protect those in attendance, participants, and President Donald Trump.”President Trump’s number one priority is the safety and security of anyone who is participating or attending the many events honoring the Nation during our historical semiquincentennial celebrations,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement.While details of specific security measures are not disclosed to the public, former Secret Service agents say the event will rely on both visible and invisible security measures that have evolved over time, aimed at protecting both the public and the president. Visible and invisible security measuresOne of the most obvious security measures that can be seen by those visiting the White House is the 13-foot fence surrounding the entire property. Bill Gage, a former Secret Service agent, said the fence is just one of the many visible parts of a much larger security operation. “The Secret Service has a layered security model that they use and have always used — sort of this inner, outer and middle perimeter,” said Gage, now director of executive protection for SafeHaven Security Group.Those layers include fencing, gated entry points, vehicle checkpoints, restricted roadways, and uniformed officers stationed throughout the area surrounding the White House. Over the years, those protections have expanded significantly as threats have changed.Following the Oklahoma City bombing and later the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, vehicle access around the White House became increasingly restricted, and security perimeters expanded outward.Gage said some of the most important security measures are the ones the public never notices.”There are a lot of very covert, plain clothes agents and officers that just sort of roam the area looking for any suspicious people, suspicious packages, suspicious vehicles,” Gage said. “There’s also stuff that the average normal everyday person wouldn’t even see or notice.”Challenges of protecting the president outside the White House Retired Secret Service supervisory agent and current Assistant Professor of Practice at the University of New Haven, Bobby McDonald, says the White House offers security advantages that cannot be replicated anywhere else.”The element of protection that is at the White House needs to be brought to wherever the president is,” McDonald said. “And that’s where the problems arise, because you don’t have the infrastructure, the fences, the alarms, all of the things that are at the White House.”McDonald, who served on the Presidential Protective Division during the Clinton and Bush administrations, described presidential security as a series of “security” rings surrounding the president. “So you’re gonna have the actual shift agents who are directly around the president with several supervisors. Then you’re going to have the middle ring of security, which is post standards of the Secret Service, both agents and uniform division officers,” McDonald said. “Then you’re going to have the outer ring, which is a mixture of both Secret Service personnel, local state, other federal police agencies, bringing that secure apparatus to that venue or that particular event.” Every presidential appearance requires extensive advance work involving local law enforcement, venue operators, White House staff and federal partners. Security plans must account for traffic patterns, crowd movement, emergency access routes and countless other variables.”The Secret Service is very, very good at liaising with other agencies,” McDonald said.Security threatsRecent security incidents involving the Secret Service and President Trump have drawn attention to presidential security measures. The assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, the armed suspect discovered near Trump’s Florida golf course, and a recent shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner have raised questions about how often threats emerge and how frequently the Secret Service stops them.McDonald says the public only sees a fraction of what agents deal with.”The Secret Service, unfortunately, really doesn’t have a metric to know what it potentially stopped on a particular day,” he said.In many cases, a visible law enforcement presence may deter someone from acting before a threat happens.At the White House, Secret Service agents often deal with what they call “gate callers” —individuals who show up at the White House claiming they need to speak with the president.Gage said those encounters happen far more often than most Americans realize.”In any given day, there’s probably 15 or 20 of those people,” Gage said. “The Secret Service takes every single incident where somebody has what’s called an unusual interest towards the president very seriously.” A new challenge: DronesWhile fences and checkpoints remain important, former agents say one of the fastest-growing concerns involves threats from above.”The drone piece is very challenging for the Secret Service,” Gage said.The White House already sits inside one of the nation’s most controlled airspaces. Unauthorized aircraft entering restricted zones can trigger an immediate federal response.Drones, however, have created an entirely new category of threats.”The technology for drones, by the time the military or private industry comes up with a countermeasure, there’s already a counter to that countermeasure,” Gage said.As a result, the Secret Service continually works with the military and defense industry to adapt.”The Secret Service is in constant cooperation with the military and the defense industry to sort of look at that drone piece and what’s the best way to protect not just when the president’s at the White House, but when the president is traveling,” Gage said.Constantly adaptingBoth former agents said one of the biggest misconceptions about presidential protection is that it follows a fixed formula.A combination of factors has complicated the threat environment, including social media, increased public visibility of security incidents and growing concerns surrounding mental health. “The Secret Service has to be nimble and change on a dime,” McDonald said. “Something may happen today that they may have to totally implement a new practice or procedure tomorrow.”McDonald said the agency has spent the past several years reviewing procedures and tightening operations where needed, as well as learning from some recent mistakes. “Despite the sins of the last couple years, they still are the very best at what they do. With respect to protection,” McDonald said. As thousands of people are expected to gather around the White House for Sunday’s event, agents will once again rely on a mix of visible security, covert surveillance, intelligence gathering and interagency coordination designed to keep the president and the public safe.McDonald compared the challenge to a football game.”The offensive team knows what they’re going to do. The defensive team has to figure it out,” he said. “The Secret Service can be on offense while they’re planning the advance. But once it starts, now you’re on defense because you’ve got to figure out what the bad guy or guys is going to do and try to minimize that or mitigate that to make sure that nothing happens.”