Evening Brief: Former Nigerian Military Ruler Dies, Senate Report on Trump Assassination Attempt

· Guy D. McCardle

Former Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari. Image Credit: CNN

Muhammadu Buhari, the former Nigerian military ruler and two-term civilian president, died at the age of 82 on Sunday, July 13, 2025, in London. He’d been receiving medical care there for a lingering illness, a detail that became all too familiar during his time in office. The announcement came from both his personal press secretary and the Nigerian presidency, which confirmed that Vice President Kashim Shettima was on his way to escort Buhari’s body home for Muslim burial rites. President Bola Tinubu ordered national flags flown at half-staff in mourning.

Buhari’s life was a tale of two presidencies. He first seized power in a 1983 military coup, kicking off a brief but stern reign as Nigeria’s head of state. That period—January 1984 to August 1985—was defined by a rigid anti-corruption crusade, but also by a crackdown on civil liberties. Political opponents and journalists found themselves behind bars, and the country grew uneasy under his authoritarian rule. He didn’t last long. A fellow general gave him the boot in another coup, and Buhari retreated from public life for decades.

But Nigeria wasn’t done with him yet. In 2015, he pulled off a historic comeback—this time at the ballot box. Buhari became the first opposition candidate to defeat a sitting president in Nigeria’s democratic history. His civilian presidency spanned from 2015 to 2023, marked by a familiar message: stamping out corruption and confronting Boko Haram.

While he talked tough and occasionally acted the part, his tenure was also hobbled by an underperforming economy, rampant insecurity across multiple regions, and the very real optics of a leader often missing in action—particularly when he jetted off abroad for medical care, leaving Nigerians to stew over the state of their own crumbling healthcare system.

Love him or hate him, Buhari leaves behind a legacy wrapped in contradiction. To his supporters, he was a disciplined leader who meant well and tried to clean up a notoriously corrupt system. To his critics, he was a strongman dressed in democratic clothing, often out of touch with the demands of a modern Nigeria. Either way, the general-turned-president left his mark—twice.

 

 

Senate Blasts Secret Service Over Trump Assassination Attempt

The U.S. Senate just pulled back the curtain on one of the biggest security breakdowns in recent history—the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. A year-long bipartisan investigation, released in July 2025, slammed the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) for a laundry list of failures that made the attack possible. The phrase “preventable tragedy” gets tossed around a lot in D.C., but in this case, it fits like a custom-tailored suit.

Turns out, the Secret Service had received classified intel about a possible threat to Trump’s life ten days before the rally. And what did they do with it? Absolutely nothing. They sat on it like it was some office memo about broken vending machines. No heads-up to local law enforcement, no alerts to the folks on the ground. Why? Because the agency’s internal rules didn’t require sharing unless the threat was imminent—which is bureaucrat-speak for “Let’s roll the dice and hope for the best.”

It gets worse. Trump’s security detail had asked for backup—counter-sniper teams, anti-drone gear, extra boots on the ground. Not once, not twice, but at least ten times. Most of those requests were flat-out denied or quietly dropped into a black hole of red tape. The Butler rally, in particular, got the short end of the stick, with minimal support despite being a high-profile event with a predictable target.

Coordination between the Secret Service and local law enforcement? Practically nonexistent. The shooter had been spotted acting suspiciously 25 minutes before the first shot rang out. But thanks to a cocktail of poor communication and agents trying to text through a cell signal dead zone, the warning never made it to the people protecting Trump. That failure alone reads like something out of a bad thriller novel.

And then there’s the planning—if you can even call it that. Agents in charge of advance work didn’t know who was responsible for what, and there were no clear rules for how to submit or approve security requests. The Secret Service didn’t even bother to plan for the possibility of jammed cell networks at a large rally. This wasn’t their first rodeo, but you wouldn’t know it from the way they handled things.

As for consequences, they were laughable. No one was fired. Six agents got slapped on the wrist, and a few of them even had their punishments downgraded later. The then-Director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, was caught lying to Congress about those denied security requests. She finally stepped down—but only after pressure from both sides of the aisle boiled over.

Congress responded by throwing $1.17 billion at the problem in hopes of rebooting the agency’s protocols, upgrading equipment, and forcing reforms that should have been in place years ago. But money alone won’t fix a culture of complacency. The Senate report makes it clear: this wasn’t a one-time blunder. It was the result of years of rot, poor leadership, and institutional drift.

If the U.S. Secret Service wants to regain the public’s trust, it’s going to take more than funding. It’ll take a top-to-bottom overhaul and some serious house-cleaning. Anything less is an invitation for history to repeat itself.

 

Sunday Shootings Rock Kentucky: State Trooper and Civilians Injured, Suspect Dead

Two connected shootings turned a quiet Sunday in Kentucky into a day of chaos and gunfire. It all kicked off around 11:36 a.m. on July 13, 2025, when a suspect opened fire on a state trooper in Fayette County, which includes the city of Lexington. After wounding the trooper, the shooter took off and headed straight for the Richmond Road Baptist Church—because nothing says “getaway plan” like barging into a house of worship with a firearm.

That’s where the second round of gunfire erupted, and it didn’t end quietly. Multiple people were injured in the mayhem. The suspect didn’t make it out alive—authorities confirmed they were killed, though they’re keeping their name and motive under wraps for now. The injured, including the trooper, were rushed to a local hospital, but officials haven’t released any updates on how bad the wounds are.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear weighed in, praising law enforcement for their fast response and asking the public to send prayers to the victims and their families. Meanwhile, investigators are working to untangle the sequence of events and figure out what happened and why. Until then, Lexington’s left picking up the pieces from a Sunday no one’s likely to forget.