Presidents change, threats stay the same
Secret Service says Trump faces same number Obama did
Despite a spate of White House security breaches and other attention-grabbing stunts, there has been no change in the number of threats directed at President Trump during his first five months in office compared with those against his predecessor, Barack Obama, according to the Secret Service.
On average, agents have pursued six to eight threat reports each day, Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles said Thursday.
That number has remained relatively consistent for the past decade, regardless of the officeholder, the retired Marine Corps major general said in his first briefing since his appointment by Trump in April.
The agency was confronted this week with a stunt organized by actress Kathy Griffin who was photographed holding a fake, severed head in the image of Trump. Griffin’s actions, which drew rebukes from the president and first lady Melania Trump, set in motion a formal investigation. The Secret Service will question the actress.
In Washington, officers stopped a man attempting to scale a bike rack at the perimeter of the White House on Tuesday, and agents assisted in the arrest of a man on weapons charges at the nearby Trump International Hotel one day later.
Alles, the first director selected from outside the agency in 70 years, acknowledged that the size of the president’s family and his multiple residences placed added “stress” on the agency’s protective division, which has carried a crushing workload since Pope Francis’ visit to the USA in 2015. The visit, which required an enormous security operation, was followed quickly by a contentious election season and January’s inauguration.
“There are more places we have to protect by statute,” Alles said, referring to Trump’s retreats in Florida and New Jersey and his home in Manhattan’s Trump Tower. “That and the fact that he has a large family. That’s just more stress on the organization. We recognize that. It’s not some- thing I have any flexibility on.
“I can’t change the size of the president’s family,” Alles said, chuckling. “Nor will I attempt to do that.”
After 38 days on the job, Alles outlined an ambitious agenda to increase the size of the agency from 6,800 agents and uniformed officers to 9,500 by 2025. The bolstered force is needed, he said, to improve persistent morale problems caused by unpredictable staffing demands and limited funds to pay overtime.
In October, USA TODAY reported that slightly more than 1,000 agents — about a third of the agent workforce — maxed out annual overtime and salary allowances. Many of them reached their limits in June and were not eligible for overtime during the national political conventions, which the agency secures.
The disclosure prompted Congress to approve additional funding to cover the overtime costs, but that fix applied only to last year’s overtime expenditures.
Unless Congress approves a permanent fix, Alles said, a “couple hundred” agents and officers will max out their pay allowances this year.
“The mission is inflexible,” the director said.