Securing the 2020 presidential campaign was always going to be a major challenge for the Secret Service. The coronavirus pandemic and the civil strife over George Floyd’s death have only complicated matters further.
Let’s start with the protests.
The most obvious challenge here is the agency’s need to protect President Trump in an environment where both the president and protesters seem determined to undermine each other and to do so in an increasingly bitter landscape.
Take this week’s action by the U.S. Park Police, the D.C. Metro Police, and the Secret Service to clear protesters from an area just outside the White House. That action required an aggressive use of force, undermining the agency’s reputation. And so, while the action was necessary to secure President Trump’s ensuing walk to St. John’s Episcopal Church, it risks the Secret Service being seen to favor the president against his political opponents. Such perceptions would be unfair, but the perceptions are ones the agency desperately wishes to avoid.
Note, for example, that when protesters interrupt an event at which a Secret Service protectee is speaking, the agents assigned to the protectee will very rarely intercede. They will only do so if no security or police officers are available to remove the protesters or if the protesters move too close to the protectee, posing a feasible threat. Part of the agency’s motivation in leaving protesters to others is that its agents are taught protesters may be a diversion for attackers. But the Secret Service also wants to avoid being seen as a political praetorian guard, even as it endeavors to earn the trust and confidence of those it protects.
But even when the president’s intentions are good, as with his tweet on Thursday celebrating the Secret Service’s effort to keep him safe, the partisan dynamic now swirling with these protests means the agency would prefer Trump to stay silent.
Great to be with our wonderful Men and Women of the @SecretService. What a job they are doing! pic.twitter.com/QEBvy1JdUp
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2020
It’s also likely that the president will have received an increase in threats due to the energetic controversy of the past week. That’s something that the agency’s Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division and field offices will have to take the lead on. They’ll track down anyone who has made a specific threat and take further action in the context of each individual’s seriousness and corollary capacity to act.
This isn’t to say that protecting Joe Biden will be easy.
Biden’s security requirements, which fall under the authority of the Dignitary Protection Division, will have been slightly reduced by the coronavirus pandemic. That’s thanks to the associated reduction in Biden’s travel and campaign events (it’s generally easier to protect someone when they’re static rather than moving around busy campaign events).
Still, the pandemic will also have required Biden’s security detail to isolate agents from their families and socializing. That’s because, at 77 years old, the agency must assume that Biden might become very ill if infected with the coronavirus (the same assessment will apply to Trump, which is why all the officers in the photo above would have been ordered to wear their masks in his company).
In the end, however, the Secret Service cannot agonize on these issues. It must focus on getting the job done. Fortunately, the agency’s agents and officers are great patriots. They’ll keep focused on their most patriotic and critical of missions: protecting America’s democratic will.
