The Real Reason Donald Trump's Kids Just Lost Secret Service Protection
Donald Trump's kids just lost Secret Service protection. Today is the last day of Secret Service protection for Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump, and their respective families. Why are the adult Trump kids and their families losing protection? Did they spend too much money traveling? Is there a secret Secret Service rule they disobeyed?
The loss of Secret Service for the Trump kids might not be a bad thing for taxpayers. In 2017, CNN reported that former President Trump's travel costs during his first year as president were estimated to be as much as former President Barack Obama's travel costs during his eight years in office. It appears Trump's children followed the former president's lead as far as traveling. According to The Hill, the Trump family took 1,625 trips annually, compared with the Obama family's average of 133.3 trips a year. Records obtained by the nonpartisan watchdog Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) showed that Secret Service expenses for the Trump kids and families for February of this year (just the first month of their post-presidency life) cost $140,000. CREW reported that the Trump kids maintained a "breakneck speed of travel, and racked up significant hotel and transportation bills for the Secret Service."
Did the government cut off Trumps' travel bill? Keep reading to find why the Trump kids' Secret Service protection is ending.
Donald Trump extended protection for his kids for six months, but now time's up
The adult Trump kids were not supposed to have Secret Service protection after their dad left office. Days before leaving office, then-President Donald Trump extended Secret Service protection to six months for his four adult children and three executives in his administration, per The Washington Post. The additional Secret Service ends July 21, which is probably a good thing for taxpayers. According to People, Watchdog group CREW estimated the cost for the additional six months of protection "could reach about $1 million."
Under federal law, all former presidents receive lifetime Secret Service protection. Barron Trump will continue to have Secret Service protection until he turns 16. In addition to his adult children, Trump also extended Secret Service protection for three key executives: former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, former chief of staff Mark Meadows, and former national security adviser Robert C. O'Brien, per WaPo.
Even though the Secret Service protection is ending, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Eric have plenty of money to pay for personal protection. Vanity Fair reported Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner made $640 million while working in the Trump administration. According to Forbes, the Trump businesses (run by Eric and Don Jr.) made $2.4 billion while President Trump was in office. Tiffany might need to dip into the family fund to pay for security, but there's clearly enough in the bank to cover it.
Donald Trump stressed out the Secret Service
According to Carol Leonnig's book "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service" (via The Washington Post), when Donald Trump took office in January 2016, the Secret Service was on a hopeful upswing after being marred by a 2014 security breach at the White House. However, the new president didn't provide the fresh start or organizational facelift the Secret Service had hoped. Like many government agencies, the Secret Service is often strapped for cash, mainly due to budget cuts, Leonnig noted. Thus, Trump's notoriously extravagant spending habits were stressful to the money-conscious agents.
In his first three months as president, Trump traveled to his home base of Mar-a-Lago seven times, which required expenses for the entire security team, per Leonnig. Additionally, Melania Trump spent the first several months of her husband's presidency at her home base in Manhattan, reportedly so Barron Trump could finish the school year, which also increased expenses.
The burden of protecting the Trumps reached a peak when the Secret Service had to request a $60 million loan to maintain the status quo. It wasn't just the money that bugged the agents, though. Leonnig detailed how morale took a hit during the Trump years, too. "Trump has set back this agency 10 years," a former agent told the author. "The overall culture and way of doing things took a big step back." Yikes.
The Trump family had strange relationships with the Secret Service
It wasn't just the president that made things sticky for the Secret Service. Certain members of the Trump family also complicated things by reportedly being too close with their secret service agents. In "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service," Carol Leonnig described "inappropriately — and perhaps dangerously — close" relationships between Tiffany Trump, Vanessa Trump (Donald Trump Jr.'s ex-wife), and their respective Secret Service agents, per The Guardian.
According to Leonnig, Vanessa began dating one of the agents assigned to her family following her 2018 divorce. As she was divorced from the Trump family, Vanessa was no longer under the agency's control, so the agent wasn't breaking any rules by carrying on a relationship with her, even if the optics weren't great. But things got more complicated when agents began to report that Trump's second eldest daughter, Tiffany, was spending a suspicious amount of time with one particular agent following a breakup. Leonnig claimed that agents "became concerned at how close Tiffany appeared to be getting to close to the tall, dark, and handsome agent."
Whether or not their relationship ever became unprofessional is unclear. Both Tiffany and the agent (who has not been named) have reportedly denied that anything inappropriate ever happened, though the agent was reassigned. All in all, it seems like the Secret Service might be more than ready to step away from the Trumps.