The Secret Service has limitations on how much individual agents can be paid. Which sounds like a nice cost-containment measure, but the current administration is pushing that to the limit, due to both to the significantly higher number of people in the Trump Administration being given protection and the weekly travel being made by Trump to his fabulous resorts and residences (and the need to keep those locations constantly secure). The result is significant numbers of agents not being paid for overtime and extended assignments, and an exodus of trained personnel out of the agency.
This has been a problem, to some degree or another, since 9-11 and stepped up security. But it appears to be worse under the current Administration.
Trump, of course, famously and repeatedly criticized Obama for spending a fraction of what he’s now spending — but, as Trump reminded us the other night, things look different when you’re in the White House …
[UPDATED: Changed to not say that the Secret Service labor budget is running out.]
Exclusive: Secret Service out of money to pay agents because of Trump’s frequent travel, large family
The Secret Service can no longer afford to pay agents due to the sheer size of President Trump’s family and the need to secure their multiple residences.
In looking a bit more at this story, I saw a number of Trump supporters saying the story had been debunked and that USA Today (who originally broke it) had retracted it.
1. No, no retractions have taken place that I was able to find..
2. The debunking is in part from a former Secret Service agent now flogging his new book on conservative web sites. [http://www.wnd.com/2017/08/ex-secret-service-agent-debunks-usa-todays-fake-news-on-trump/]
3. Or the debunking comes from a press release of the head of the Secret Service, who assures us everything is all right, that they had similar budget problems in 2016, and there's nothing specifically that his boss has done to make the problem worse [https://www.secretservice.gov/data/press/releases/2017/17-AUG/GPA_29-17_Max_Out_Director_Statement.pdf].
One person clarified the situation by saying that the Secret Service is not out of money, but some individual Secret Service employees cannot be paid any more due to caps.
It is true that this has been a problem for some time. It's just worse with Trump. It's insane that they have to use so much overtime.
+John E. Bredehoft You're correct that the CNBC headline (and my initial description of it) are misleading, and that the problem is salary / OT caps. The article does details some of the cost increases in coverage under the Trump Presidency, but the impact that has on the Secret Service budget is unclear.
Updated.
Bleeding us US dry.
You went to WND? What, are you bucking for a medal for bravery or something. 😉
+Dan Eastwood They can be highly entertaining … in tiny doses. Then one's head 'splodes.