The Washington Post revealed, Wednesday, January 20, 2021, that former US President Donald Trump issued a decision to extend the protection of the Secret Service assigned to him to include all his adult children and their spouses, in addition to three of his senior administration officials, before leaving the White House .
According to a report by Business Insider , Thursday, January 21, three people familiar with the matter told the newspaper that the scope of security funded by the taxpayer will expand to include Trump's four adult children and their spouses: Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and his wife. Lara Trump and his daughter Tiffany Trump, and Trump's grandchildren will also be included in the protection afforded to their parents.
A decision that costs millions
Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, and former National Security Adviser Robert C. O'Brien are also slated to get Secret Service protection by Trump, according to The Washington Post.
On the other hand, the newspaper stated that expanding the scope of security protection in this way could cost the American taxpayer millions of dollars , especially if we take into account the large number of travel trips that Trump's children take to advance the business of the family company, known as the Trump Organization.
According to the newspaper's report, "Government records show that from 2017 to 2019, members of the Trump family made more than 4,500 trips that required the Secret Service to travel with them, which cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars."
Of course, Trump and his wife are automatically granted expensive 24-hour protection throughout their lives, and their 14-year-old son, Barron, will receive the same protection until the age of 16. The same is true of former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence, who are entitled to full-time security protection after leaving the administration, for the next six months.
Trump is not the first
However, Trump is not the first president to extend the protection of the Secret Service to include individuals who are not entitled to it automatically. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush granted security protection to their college-age daughters for a period of time after their terms of office ended. .
Former President Barack Obama also granted protection to his two daughters, Sasha and Malia, after he left office, who were in high school and university, respectively.
On the other hand, the news of the security extension comes in the wake of the inauguration of Joe Biden as the new president of the United States on Wednesday, January 20, and Trump and his wife Melania had left the White House hours earlier, heading to Florida, where their new residence.
The Secret Service is preparing to grant protection to Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and their families, including Biden's adult children and the two children of Douglas Imhoff, Harris' husband, from his previous marriage.