It should come to no surprise to anyone that Donald Trump has employed a very robust security team as a private citizen. Even though he became eligible for Secret Service protection at least by the time he became the Republican nominee for president, he has kept his private team on the job as well as accepting Secret Service protection. In fact, he continues to employ his private team to supplement the work of the Secret Service today.
The question becomes, why? The Secret Service is a highly-skilled and highly-respected agency. Since the JFK assassination, there has been no successful attempt on the life of a president, although the one on Reagan came close.
Could it be that Trump is concerned about the loyalty or competence of those Secret Service agents? Recent revelations of alleged incompetence at that agency have been very disturbing. For those who wish to consider such things, the egregiousness of some of the Secret Services lapses could almost point in the direction of a possible false flag attack.
The problem arises when trying to coordinate private security details with the Secret Services. It isn’t necessary for one to be an expert on such matters to see the possibility of confusion.
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.
But Trump — who puts a premium on loyalty and has demonstrated great interest in having forceful security at his events — has opted to maintain an aggressive and unprecedented private security force, led by Keith Schiller, a retired New York City cop and Navy veteran who started working for Trump in 1999 as a part-time bodyguard, eventually rising to become his head of security.
Security officials warn that employing private security personnel heightens risks for the president-elect and his team, as well as for protesters, dozens of whom have alleged racial profiling, undue force or aggression at the hands of Trump’s security, with at least 10 joining a trio of lawsuits now pending against Trump, his campaign or its security.
“It’s playing with fire,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who worked on President Barack Obama’s protective detail during his 2012 reelection campaign. Having a private security team working events with Secret Service “increases the Service’s liability, it creates greater confusion and it creates greater risk,” Wackrow said.
“You never want to commingle a police function with a private security function,” he said, adding, “If you talk to the guys on the detail and the guys who are running the rallies, that’s been a little bit difficult because it’s so abnormal.”
Does Donald Trump have a valid reason for being concerned about the efficiency and sufficiency of Secret Service protection such that he finds it desirable to maintain his own security force as well in spite of all the possible confusion that could create? At his victory rally he made it a point to speak very highly of the Secret Service.
Has something changed? Of does Mr. Trump simply feel more comfortable with the protective staff he has employed for years?
Source: Politico
He has the right to have his private security and in light of the animosity shown him by Obama , I think it’s a good move. Get a whole new security of your own choosing.
Man! Like to on that security force job!
Leonard I agree
As well he should. Secret Service should have been disbanded anyway after they incompetently let CIA murder Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Trump ought to rely on his trusted private security and the Marine Corps only. Good luck to our new President.