By law former Presidents and their spouses get Secret Service Protection for life. It only extends to the VP for six months after leaving public office but can be extended at a sitting President’s discretion. For example if a sitting VP gets the nomination for President but loses during the general election. The threat level jumps exponentially during the campaign and doesn’t melt away quickly when it’s over. Even Trump knows that but he doesn’t care. In fact I say he’s HOPING what he’s done will lead to tragedy.
It has to truly piss off Trump that for the various details he’s cancelled he can’t cancel those for Bill or Hillary Clinton. And it drives him into a rage he can’t do the same to Barack and Michelle Obama. With the latter the crazies truly came out of the woodwork, and while on the surface it seemed our country voting for a black President (twice) meant we’d turned the corner on racism. Not gone, but true hope it would diminish by a lot. The Secret Service doesn’t comment on anything unless it has no choice but they could have told the truth – that racism got a massive jolt of adrenaline.
The selection of Kamala Harris for VP kept that adrenaline flowing albeit at a less noticeable level as VPs are so often in the background. However, when Biden chose to step aside and Harris was elevated to top of the ticket she faced every threat Obama did. Worse, due to being a woman she got Michelle’s dose too. Harris ran a strong campaign but the inherent racism and sexism in the country had her behind the whole way. I was stunned to learn that her internal polling showed while she got close she never actually took the lead against Trump!
Still she almost pulled it off. I don’t want to get bogged down in what might have beens but focus on what did happen. She presented a smart, capable confident and energetic contrast to the word-salad spouting, confused and literally stumbling and bumbling Trump. Also, when MAGA tuned in to their one and only debate expecting their Mango Messiah to wipe the floor with that ‘n-word bitch’ (WOMAN) she cut out his heart and handed it to him. With a smile and proceeded to slice and dice him into itty bitty pieces.
That’s more than enough to stoke an eternal rage out in MAGA world which as we know has plenty of raw, disturbed people. And Trump? I suspect Harris being a WOMAN and humiliating him so badly during their debate makes his head spin. Who does he hate more? Obama for the WH Correspondent’s Dinner roasting or Harris for unleashing an hour and a half of prime time whup-ass on him?
Well, Trump can’t do much to increase the possibility of something tragic happening to Obama. But he CAN do so with Harris. As explained by CNN, yesterday Trump signed an order revoking the extension of Harris’ Secret Service protection:
“You are hereby authorized to discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorized by Executive Memorandum, beyond those required by law, for the following individual, effective September 1, 2025: Former Vice President Kamala D. Harris,” the letter reads in full.
The article then blandly notes when they reached out to the White House they didn’t get a response. I’m sure at some point Trump will actually comment when a reporter at some gaggle asks him. He might, for a few seconds try to play it down but hell, this is Trump and it won’t take much (if anything) before he’s off to the races about what an awful, horrible person she is and Joe Biden too for ‘wasting’ taxpayer dollars protecting someone so ‘unworthy’ of protection. You know the kind of crap he’ll say.
However he’s likely itching for the chance to (and more than once) go on a MAGA inciting tear. He won’t come right out and say it but the message to MAGA will be clear – ‘She’s much easier target now. Happy Hunting. MAGA’ To any conservative who objects to my premise I say bullshit. Trump would celebrate more than he did the night RBG died, and relish denying an assassinated Kamala Harris any State honors. He’s that f**king despicable.
While threats to Harris starting with becoming a VP nominee were in the back of your mind it’s sobering to look at:
Harris, according to people familiar with her security operations, faced particular security concerns given that she was the first woman and first Black woman in the role. Those concerns only increased after she became the nominee, the people familiar with her security operations told CNN, and was still at a high level into January following the campaign, with feelings about the election still raw.
The timing of this is important. Harris had a fifteen city book tour planned and it’s starting. Extra events have been added at stops and more surely would have been, as well as tacking on more cities if things went well as expected. By waiting till the last minute to do what he’s done Trump has left Harris EXTREMELY vulnerable! Advance agents are on their way back to DC if not already back home. Local LE that had already worked out joint security will have to scramble and won’t be able to properly protect Harris. She faces the choice of, for her own personal safety postponing the book tour or taking the risk. If she does the former Trump will lead conservative mockery. So really, Harris has no choice and Trump goddam well knows it.
He WANTS someone to kill Harris and preferably some of her supporters who attend one of her events! If you realize as I do how much easier it will be for that to happen it’s worse than you think. In addition to removing actual agents from her protection, it also means back in DC the unit in the Secret Service that tracks threats against all protectees will no longer look at/evaluate any threats that come in against Harris. Much less communicate them to whatever security she can arrange at her own expense. Or even share them with state and Local LE:
But what will now disappear is not just the agents assigned to guard her in person, 24-7: Secret Service protection includes constant analysis of threat intelligence and covering in-person situations, emails, texts and social media. With her detail canceled, Harris aides are worried they will lose the same access to threat warnings, the people familiar with her security operations said. Her home, in the middle of Los Angeles, will also stop being protected by federal agents.
NOW do you understand how vulnerable Trump has made Harris? Again I want to emphasize the timing. He knew about her extended year of protection and long ago could have told her he would countermand it. Give her a chance to prepare. But no, he just sat on his intentions and waited. He knew months ago she would be coming out with a book and like anyone else would do a tour to promote it. So he waited until that train was on the tracks and starting to roll to start removing those giant nails that hold the tracks in place.
Keep your fingers crossed in the weeks and months ahead and if a person of faith pray for Harris. Trump wants her DEAD. And he WILL try to incite some crazed MAGAs out there to try and do it.
Scoop:
Jonie Ernst retiring
If I were Kamala, I’d be holding a press conference and putting Drumpf on notice in NO uncertain terms: “To the Convict-in-Chief who felt my security to be lacking in importance that he could just revoke my Secret Service protection without even providing so much as an advance notice, I want him to understand that ANY harm which befalls me, my husband or any member of my family as long as his felonious person continues to defile the White House, then we will hold him PERSONALLY responsible for that harm. It will not matter in the slightest if one of his many delusional, deplorable supporters is the one who actually causes the harm, ultimately the Convict-in-Chief IS responsible as if he personally inflicted that harm.”
“Keep your fingers crossed in the weeks and months ahead and if a person of faith pray for Harris.”.
That sentence is confusing. I think you meant to say, “… and if you are a person of faith, pray for Harris”.
The California Highway Patrol is stepping in, and while that doesn’t completely resolve the issue (Presidents who had full SS protection have been shot at) it at least helps – and it shows that California is willing to take responsibility where the current regime is not.