Axios reported on Friday that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles called the Secret Service to her office to chew them out over a major security breach last month when Hamas-supporting Code Pink radicals were allowed to get within feet of President Donald Trump at a restaurant during what was supposed to be a surprise night out on the town in Washington, D.C., with senior officials to highlight the success of the Trump administration’s crime-fighting surge in the nation’s capital.
Trump spoke to reporters as he arrived accompanied by Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Susie Wiles and other senior officials on the outing to Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, located just two blocks from the White House at 750 15th St., NW.
Two major concerns about the incident were who tipped off Code Pink and that there were knives on the table between Trump and the protesters. Code Pink has shown it’s willingness to physically threaten senior Republican officials, as this photo from 2007 of then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice being assaulted by Code Pink at a Congressional hearing shows:
@axiosalex A reminder of how close Code Pink will get if allowed: pic.twitter.com/ZXTir5K6FZ
— Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) October 24, 2025
The Axios report states Vice President Vance moved toward the protesters to get Secret Service to act and that it was White House staffers who threw the protesters out of the restaurant.
Protesters were subsequently escorted out of the restaurant pic.twitter.com/FeHQmsIDBU
— Samantha Waldenberg (@Sam_Waldenberg) September 10, 2025
A propaganda video posted by Code Pink shows how close they were to Trump, Rubio, and others. In the video, Trump can be seen ordering the removal of the protesters after a failure to act by the Secret Service:
While Trump, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth and others feasted at a steakhouse, we stood our ground and told them the truth: Free DC. Free Palestine. Trump is the Hitler of our time.
Two years into genocide, Gaza is under evacuation orders, Puerto Rico and Venezuela are in… pic.twitter.com/546qb1s1MO
— CODEPINK (@codepink) September 10, 2025
Axios excerpt:
Vance walked toward the protesters to take his seat in an attempt to force Secret Service into action, according to a person familiar with the interaction.
Two advance White House staffers then ushered the protesters away.
Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles were infuriated by the incident. White House officials were particularly alarmed that knives on the restaurant’s tables were near the protesters.
…Wiles later called Secret Service leaders into her office and told them it was unacceptable that anyone not thoroughly screened was able to get near the president, and that it couldn’t happen again.
…Trump aides say that for now, they have quashed any plans for Trump to do any “OTRs” — the internal code used to describe events that aren’t pre-announced to the public.
OTRs have lighter security protocols than announced stops. The Secret Service takes steps such as shutting down roads and putting snipers on roofs during publicly announced events, but OTRs are less buttressed.
The protest by Hamas-supporting Code Pink radicals at the restaurant appearance by President Trump took place on September 9. The next day, close Trump ally Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a sniper at a public appearance in Utah.
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