In a turn of events that is surely going to cause a lot of shock within the United States, it has been revealed in a CNBC exclusive that the Secret Service no longer has the money to protect President Donald Trump and his large family. According to the report, the Secret Service is finding it difficult to finance the president's security since he travels frequently and in addition to that, the total cost of providing security to his family has also stretched the budget.
A bizarre development
Since Donald Trump became president, there has been a lot of talk about the sort of costs that went into providing him and his family with security, however, no one could have envisioned this particularly bizarre development.
The Secret Service personnel are not only involved with providing security to the president but also his 31 Family Members. On top of that, they need to cover many of Trump's properties located up and down the East Coast. All of that has resulted in cost overruns in a massive scale and now the secret service is apparently pushing towards financial ruin.
Randolph Alles, the director of the Secret Service, spoke to USA Today during an interview and stated that in excess of 1000 secret service personnel have already worked so many hours that the total budget for their salaries this year has already been reached. Alles seemed resigned to the fact and said, "The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law.
I can't change that. I have no flexibility.''
Unprecedented numbers
According to Randolph Alles, the Secret Service agents are having to provide security to an unprecedented number of the president's relatives and that has been one of the big reasons why the agency's budget is now on the verge of collapse. The agency has been providing security to a total of 42 people close to the president and among them, 18 are family members.
During Obama's eight years as the president, that figure stood at 31 and needless to say, it is not surprising that the agency might be on the verge of bankruptcy.
In addition to the sheer number of people who are protected by the agents, the president's constant travel to different parts of the country has also forced the agents to work much harder and that has forced some people to quit as well.
Now that the budget is stretched, only a congressional intervention can ensure that the secret service is injected with new funds so that the agency can continue to provide security to President Donald Trump and his family. There is now a possibility that the agents might not get paid if new funds are not injected.
