At a recent church service, a close cousin (a staunch Trump supporter) told me that the president-elect should clean house at the Secret Service and fill it with vetted and devoted special agents.
His remark threw me, a former Secret Service special agent, off guard. I spent the entire church service reflecting on how stupid and sad any attempt to politicize the Secret Service would be. But I also considered how Trump could concentrate and revitalize a struggling institution.
Here are a few ways Trump may accomplish this without becoming political.
During my time in the Secret Service, I had the opportunity to work with some truly outstanding individuals. I worked with Ivy League grads, Division I and professional athletes, as well as former Navy Seals, Army Rangers, and Delta Force personnel. Every day, I observed my colleagues making significant sacrifices to safeguard the safety of America’s elected officials.
The hiring and selection standards are tough, yet the Secret Service, like any other agency, selects members of the human race. Agents may occasionally fall asleep on duty or discharge their guns negligently. Some do not meet the firearms requalification requirements. Some people cannot pass their physicals. These instances are rare, yet they do occur.
When Delta Force or Seal Team 6 encounter personnel challenges, they may fire individuals for “failure to maintain standards.” This is something that the US Secret Service cannot accomplish. All special agents are federal workers with civil service benefits. They cannot be fired or dismissed without cause. The dismissal process for government employees might take months or years to complete.
This procedure was visible during the July 2024 congressional hearings following the first assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., repeatedly questioned US Secret Service Director Ron Rowe about if the site special agent had been “relieved of duty” or whether the agents participating in the rally’s security advance had been discharged.
The final reason is that, even if mistakes were made that resulted in Trump’s near-fatal death, the agents involved are entitled to civil service protections under federal employment laws.
However, President Trump may issue an executive order exempting Secret Service members from existing civil service norms, allowing for quick termination for “failure to maintain standards.”
I’m not proposing that special agents should be fired from federal service for every offense. There could be guardrails in place. For example, if an agent fails to complete the protected task, the order may require the Secret Service to clearly establish, using existing legal requirements such as beyond a reasonable doubt, why the agent should be dismissed.
The Secret Service’s protective role is critical to our nation’s security. It serves as the foundation for the remainder of our free democratic system. Presidents must feel comfortable making national security judgments based on their own judgment. Begin with this fundamental principle: the Secret Service cannot fail in its protecting job.
During my service in the Secret Service, the Counter Assault Team (CAT) was the only special agent assignment that required a rigorous selection procedure that included physical conditioning, firearms training, and tactical assessments. Furthermore, CAT selection and basic courses have extremely high attrition rates. If you pass the physical and tactical tests, you will be allowed to continue. Fail, and you return to your prior assignment.
There were no training requirements for the Presidential Protective Detail (PPD) or the Vice-Presidential Detail (VPD). PPD had no physical or other requirements to join or continue in that position. Selection to PPD or VPD was frequently a patronage decision, and protective training was a refresher course rather than a rigorous mental, physical, or tactical test.
If they haven’t already, the Secret Service should make protection detail training extremely difficult and demanding, with strict guns and physical fitness requirements. Those who do not meet the strict standards should be reassigned.
such in favor of the Secret Service maintaining an investigative profile believe that this is where rookie special agents learn the fundamentals of law enforcement, such as interviewing skills, analyzing human behavior, conducting surveillances, and so on, before using such abilities to protective operations.
I worked with scores of agents while I was assigned to the Washington field office, which rarely, if ever, conducted an investigation. Some of those agents are now in senior managerial positions at the agency, with high-level protection responsibilities.
However, the Secret Service’s investigation of financial crimes rarely requires the expertise of a street cop. Rarely will an investigation lead to following a suspect down the street or drawing a gun. Second, agents are just not conducting enough investigations to fully develop that skill set. Third, agents do not learn how to defend the president while conducting investigations. They learn protection via experience.
The Secret Service should delegate its investigative functions to the Treasury Department or one of the dozen or more government agencies that probe similar financial offenses. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswany should be aware that there is significant overlap among federal law enforcement authorities. Re-assigning investigations would allow agents to train more and focus on protection.
Here’s something else for Elon and Vivek to consider. Why are there so many field offices around the world? Does the Secret Service really need two field operations in Oklahoma? Or three in South Carolina? Maintain the primary significant regional offices in Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, and, of course, Washington, D.C., while focusing on protection.
The Secret Service is the world’s most elite protection service, and it has always been staffed by highly trained operatives. Every protection service across the world has modeled their protocols after the Secret Service. Director Rowe has acknowledged that mistakes were made in Butler, Pennsylvania, and he is working hard to correct the situation so that it does not happen again.
Remember something else about Butler. All of the agents (including uniformed division counter-snipers) stationed to the Butler Trump rally reacted instantly when they heard gunfire. They were willing to give up their own lives, regardless of who they voted for. So, certainly, concentrate and revitalize this troubled agency, but keep the Secret Service professional and apolitical.
