In a USA Today exclusive, they have revealed that due to Trump’s extensive travels and his large family, the Secret Service is no longer able to pay agents needed to secure various properties owned by Trump and his children.
The Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of agents it needs to carry out an expanded protective mission – in large part due to the sheer size of President Trump's family and efforts necessary to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast.
The overtime alone has depleted their resources and the agency is dramatically stretched thin.
The agency has faced a crushing workload since the height of the contentious election season, and it has not relented in the first seven months of the administration. Agents must protect Trump – who has traveled almost every weekend to his properties in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia – and his adult children whose business trips and vacations have taken them across the country and overseas.
"The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law,'' Alles said. "I can't change that. I have no flexibility.''
Alles is Secret Service Director Randolph Alles.
In total, Trump’s administration has 42 people under Secret Service protective details. 18 are his family members. For comparison, during the entirety of the Obama administration, 31 people had protection.
Trump’s constant travels around the East Coast to his properties have already exhausted the agency’s overtime and salary caps for agents. Now, the Service is not sure they can even pay for the work agents have already done.
The compensation crunch is so serious that the director has begun discussions with key lawmakers to raise the combined salary and overtime cap for agents, from $160,000 per year to $187,000 for at least the duration of Trump's first term.
But even if such a proposal was approved, about 130 veteran agents would not be fully compensated for hundreds of hours already amassed, according to the agency.
"I don't see this changing in the near term,'' Alles said.
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Officials had hoped that the agency's workload would normalize after the inauguration, but the president's frequent weekend trips, his family's business travel and the higher number of protectees has made that impossible.
The Secret Service has to maintain full security measures at any Trump’s properties that he might frequent. This is being pushed more as Trump continues to travel virtually every weekend between Florida, New Jersey, and recently back to New York City.
That’s not all the Service is tasked with. Trump’s adult children (who can choose to accept or reject protection) have caused massive expense increases due to their frequent travels.
A few examples: Earlier this year, Eric Trump's business travel to Uruguay cost the Secret Service nearly $100,000 just for hotel rooms. Other trips included the United Kingdom and the Dominican Republic. In February, both sons and their security details traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia, for the opening of new Trump hotel there, and to Dubai to officially open a Trump International Golf Club.
In March, security details accompanied part of the family, including Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner on a skiing vacation in Aspen, Colo. Even Tiffany Trump, the president's younger daughter, took vacations with her boyfriend to international locales such as Germany and Hungary, which also require Secret Service protection.
All-in-all, Trump’s massive travels (already eclipsing the totality of Obama's 8 years in office) have stretched the Service to the point where they do not have adequate funding or staff. This also comes on the heels of the Secret Service having to vacate their space in Trump Tower due to excessively high rent demands. They are now based (I believe temporarily) in a trailer on the street.