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The first time Donald Trump’s reliance on private security drew real scrutiny came in March. The Republican candidate was hosting a rally in North Carolina, where Trump urged his followers to raise their hand and take an oath to support his campaign, but while this bizarre pledge was unfolding, undercover “private intelligence officers” moved through the crowd, looking for potential protestors.
A member of Trump’s private security team later told reporters that he and his colleagues were doing “intelligence work” while “assisting” law-enforcement personnel. By September, the then-candidate had reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on private security, even after Trump received protection from the U.S. Secret Service.
After the election, I had largely assumed these practices would end. Then I read this unsettlingPolitico article.
A member of Trump’s private security team later told reporters that he and his colleagues were doing “intelligence work” while “assisting” law-enforcement personnel. By September, the then-candidate had reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on private security, even after Trump received protection from the U.S. Secret Service.
After the election, I had largely assumed these practices would end. Then I read this unsettlingPolitico article.
President-elect Donald Trump has continued employing a private security and intelligence team at his victory rallies, and he is expected to keep at least some members of the team after he becomes president, according to people familiar with the plans.
The arrangement represents a major break from tradition. All modern presidents and presidents-elect have entrusted their personal security entirely to the Secret Service, and their event security mostly to local law enforcement, according to presidential security experts and Secret Service sources.
The piece added that Trump has “opted to maintain an aggressive and unprecedented private security force,” even now, more than a month after he became president-elect.
Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who worked on President Obama’s protective detail during the 2012 campaign, told Politico, “It’s playing with fire.” Wackrow added that such a dynamic – having a private security team working events with Secret Service simultaneously – “increases the Service’s liability, it creates greater confusion and it creates greater risk.”
Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who worked on President Obama’s protective detail during the 2012 campaign, told Politico, “It’s playing with fire.” Wackrow added that such a dynamic – having a private security team working events with Secret Service simultaneously – “increases the Service’s liability, it creates greater confusion and it creates greater risk.”
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