President Donald Trump has ordered the Secret Service to stop providing a protection detail and other protective measures for former Vice President Kamala Harris, revoking an order signed in January by then-president Joe Biden to extend her security until January 2026.
Trump issued the directive on Thursday in the form of a memorandum to the agency informing officials that they were “hereby authorized to discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorized by Executive Memorandum” with regard to Harris, who under normal circumstances would have lost her protection on July 20 — six months after the end of her term.
The end of Harris’ protective detail and the existence of the memorandum was first reported by CNN.
In a statement to the network, Harris adviser Kristen Allen said the former vice president is “grateful to the United States Secret Service for their professionalism, dedication, and unwavering commitment to safety.”
Since returning to office, Trump has used his authority over the Secret Service to punish perceived political adversaries by removing previously authorized protective details, even in cases where there have been documented threats to the people in question.
In his first days back in the White House, he ordered the agency to stop protecting his first-term national security adviser, John Bolton, and his former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo.
Both men have been on a list of officials targeted for assassination by Iran in retaliation for the Trump-ordered drone stroke on Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps leader Qassem Soleimani during the president’s first term.
But Trump nonetheless ordered their protective details to be withdrawn.
In March, he ordered an end to protection for former president Biden’s adult children, including his son Hunter Biden, at the urging of conspiracy theorist and anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer.
The ex-president had signed a directive extending protection for his adult children for six months after leaving office — something Trump had done for his own family before vacating the White House after losing the 2020 election.
But Trump declined to extend Biden the same courtesy and in a social media post, he expressed his disapproval of what he said were 18 agents assigned to Hunter Biden’s security detail during his visit to South Africa this week. Hunter’s wife Melissa Cohen Biden is originally from South Africa.
“Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time, all paid for by the United States Taxpayer,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“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.
Trump also said that Ashley Biden, who he said had 13 agents assigned to her, would be “taken off the list”.
