March 17 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Monday said he “immediately” revoked Secret Service protection for two of former president Joe Biden’s children, Ashley and Hunter.
Trump, in a post on Teruth Social, said he was incensed that 18 agents were assigned to the detail of Hunter, 55, while in South Africa this week. Ashley Biden, 43, has 13 agents assigned to her detail.
He posted: “There are as many as 18 people on this Detail, which is ridiculous! He is currently vacationing in, of all places, South Africa, where the Human Rights of people has been strenuously questioned. Because of this, South Africa has been taken off our list of Countries receiving Economic and Financial Assistance.
Earlier while on a tour of the Kenedy Center for the Performing Arts, Trump was asked by a reporter about the taxpayer-funded visit.
Trump said it was something that he would look into.
Former White House aide Garrett Ziegler told the New York Post: “Trump should strip his Secret Service protection, which he is not entitled to, and make Joe Biden, who is collecting three handsome federal pensions, foot the bill.”
Federal law requires former presidents and their spouses to receive life-long Secret Service protection and for immediate family members under 16. Protection also ends if the spouse remarries. The law was amended in 2013.
Trump and Biden extended details for their children for six months before leaving office.
Earlier, Trump ended Secret Service protection for his former national security adviser John Bolton, and federal protection for his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook though there have been threats against them from Iran.
Trump also also ended federal protection for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who advised him on the COVID-19 pandemic.
