Secret Service Agents Grew Unusually Close to 2 Trumps

New book says Vanessa Trump dated member of the family's detail
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted May 12, 2021 6:55 PM CDT
Secret Service Questioned Relationships With Trumps
Vanessa Trump, left, and Tiffany Trump laugh together on the South Lawn of the White House in April 2018 at the Easter Egg Roll.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The apparent closeness of the relationships between Secret Service agents and two of the Trumps they were guarding raised concerns at the agency, a new book says. To lessen the chances of their judgment being compromised, agents aren't allowed to maintain personal relationships with the people they protect, the Guardian reports. So red flags were raised, the book says, when former President Trump's daughter Tiffany "began spending an unusual amount of time alone with a Secret Service agent on her detail." The agent was reassigned, though he and Tiffany Trump said nothing inappropriate was going on. The account is included in Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service, a book by Carol Leonnig, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post, scheduled to be released next week.

In addition, Vanessa Trump, who's now divorced from Donald Trump Jr., "started dating one of the agents who had been assigned to her family," Leonnig writes. The Secret Service took no action against the agent because Vanessa Trump's safety wasn't their responsibility at the time, the book says. She filed for divorce in March 2018. It's not clear whether the president was aware of the agency's concerns about his daughter, per the Guardian. He was insistent about overweight Secret Service agents being removed, per the Washington Post. Trump said to get "these fat guys off my detail," adding, "How are they going to protect me and my family if they can't run down the street?" (The Secret Service is still guarding Trump children.)

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