After the Trump shooting attempt, CEOs need a new security playbook

In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady on the lessons from this weekend’s shooting.
The big leadership story: Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus is inheriting a messy China business.
The markets: Edging up after Iran reportedly proposed a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz
Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.

Good morning. The world is more dangerous for leaders, across multiple dimensions. The attempted shooting attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday and the Molotov cocktail attack on Sam Altman’s home earlier this month are further proof of that. Researchers tracked more than 2,200 direct threats to CEOs across different channels in the five weeks following the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson in late 2024, more than the entire year that preceded it. Spending on physical security is up and the geopolitical landscape is obviously more risky with the war on Iran. Now add AI, which has made it dramatically cheaper to execute and scale fraud. So what can leaders and their companies do?

Don’t publicize location or other details. I now receive a number of invites where the location is disclosed only after I RSVP ‘yes.’ Sometimes, that’s to keep party-crashers at bay, but it’s also a smart security move. Of course, that’s not possible for events like the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, which is why gunman Cole Tomas Allen knew to book a room at Hilton, where it was being held. It’s a common practice for CEOs to book hotel rooms under pseudonyms or a staffers’ name.

Split up the leadership team. Like the royal family, most companies have policies that bar key executives and board members from traveling on the same plane. It’s surprising to me that at least two-thirdsof the 18 officials in line to succeedthe president were at the dinner, many in close proximity to Trump.

Talk to your kids. You don’t have to be a billionaire to be exposed to the threat of kidnapping, extortion, or fraud. There are ways to minimize it. Growing up, my family used a different (non-Catholic) last name when visiting with Protestant relatives during ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland. Many leaders I know have a safe word for their company and another for their family that they know to use if any strange phone calls come in from fraudsters pretending to be them. In an age when identity theft is so prevalent, it’s a smart thing for everyone to do.

Take steps to rebuild trust. Countries that tolerate hate speech, whether from presidents or platforms, are more likely to experience hate crimes. The Edelman Trust Barometer has shown a steady deterioration of trust to the point where a remarkable number of people feel violence is justified. The ‘institution’ they trust most is their employer, which means CEOs have a unique power to do something. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin is speaking up. Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg wrote about the fragility of democracyin his annual shareholder letter. Synchrony CEO Brian Doubles talks about prioritizing ways to keep trust high, which may explain why the company ranked No. 1 on our latest 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Nobody can prevent random violence, but they can protect against it—and try to create conditions that reduce its spread. Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]