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After President Trump’s near assassination, the Secret Service complained that it needed more money.
My take was that this is what government officials always claim after a massive screw-up and that more money is not needed.
Does the Secret Service actually need more money? It has a $3 billion budget. That’s around double what it was in 2000.
Only about $1.2 billion of that goes to protective operations and only about $73 million gets spent on providing security at presidential campaigns. $138 million gets spent on training and professional development.
By way of comparison, $3 billion is around the LAPD budget.
I did a deeper dive back in December.
The Secret Service salary cap is $221,145. In one survey nearly 40% of agents had hit the cap for working overtime which means that many of the Secret Service personnel are being paid more than some of the elected officials they’re protecting.
With a mandatory retirement age of 57 and a program that allows personnel to retire in their fifties, collect pensions and then return to work, ludicrous salaries have become the norm.
In 2014, the Secret Service blamed malfunctioning radios that made it difficult to track the intruder. In 2024, the Secret Service once again blamed malfunctioning radios.
With a $3 billion annual budget and a decade worth of time, the Secret Service can’t even manage to solve a problem with its radios. Why expect it to do anything at all?
When Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu visited D.C. Secret Service “agents said they marveled at what their Israeli counterparts brought — including a portable security camera network that delivered live feeds from key spots in the prime minister’s hotel. The Secret Service has its own mobile camera system. But agents say it is so unreliable it is rarely used.”
Now the Secret Service, which is absolutely short of money, decided to address its problems with a Super Bowl ad directed by Michael Bay.
The United States Secret Service tapped blockbuster movie director Michael Bay to create a recruiting advertisement that is expected to be unveiled in the stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, according to multiple NFL and Secret Service sources.
The ad cost an estimated $2 million for the Secret Service to produce, according to two sources familiar with the project — a hefty price tag that comes amid massive budget cuts and layoffs at other government agencies.
One source told CNN the estimated $2 million budget is about double what was spent on previous Secret Service recruiting ads.
People are fairly aware of the Secret Service. A Super Bowl ad isn’t fixing its recruiting problems. The problem is that the Secret Service has to compete for the people it wants with multiple police forces desperately trying to staff up after the BLM crime wave and with the military and various security agencies.
But a Super Bowl ad is not going to address that. People either believe in the ethos of your organization or don’t. Making the Secret Service look cool is not the answer. Not when existing veterans keep heading out the door. That’s not even a recruitment issue, it’s a leadership issue and one that desperately needs fixing.
Malfunctioning radios is a chronic problem such organizations have, that comes up often in military history, police and fire agencies trying to work together, etc. One line I often use is that “communication is the most difficult thing” 🙂
“What we’ve got here…..is failure to communicate.” 🙂
What was the commercial? Are you an incompetent, bumbling buffoon? Join us! Now you can be a secret incompetent, bumbling, buffoon!
The chaotic seen of the Secret Service bumbling around in disarray after Donald Trump was shot is a national disgrace.
That has been described as “The Ponytail Brigade,” after the young be-ponytailed SS female officer attempting to hustle the 6 Ft. plus Donald Trump away after he was shot.
As if that pee wee could stop a bullet meant for a President who towers over her. No women in the SS unless they can meet the physical demands of the job.
Can you holster your gun without dropping it, or shooting the president? Then we want you!
That sounds about right for a government commercial.
That or an Army recruitment cartoon about a girl who climbs a ten foot wall and jumps off it to land in an Iron Man pose on one knee.
Follow that with a scene of her “two mothers” getting married.
Oh, wait. That already happened. It was a real commercial.
It was pathetic.
Well that would be perfectly accurate, although I would add overpaid, under worked and often unqualified. Just look at that little fat chick to the left and behind the men doing their jobs in the photo above.
Of course, the SS counter sniper team didn’t kill Mathew Crooks until after he’d wounded Trump and two bystanders and killed another. The spotters didn’t do their job at all, even though Crooks was clearly visible for over 90 minutes before the shooting – to local cops but not the SS he was still allowed to start shooting. I don’t know if the police notified the SS and their warning was ignored but I truly believe that was so. I can’t imagine police in a conservative city like Butler Pennsylvania shirking their duty.
Although I have to remark that any commercial made by Micchael Bay was sure to be a good one.
I missed that ad – maybe I was using the bathroom or getting a beer – I found the USSS commercial on youtube: https://youtu.be/_9Npzi4oQZ8?si=eF2xjqscJ9pQn9d5
President Lincoln was assassinated before the USSS was formed – then they show JFK, Regan and President Trump all assassinated or assassination attempts. Showing the failures of the USSS!
The rank and file in law enforcement are hugely in majority for dedication and intelligence and professionalism in their chosen profession.
This is what the USSS needs. And the compromised in the leadership of the USSS, FBI, CIA, etc, must be weeded out.
There are a lot of people who can qualify for being a sworn agent in these law enforcement branches. Many will apply, few are chosen.
Those few are still in the hundreds if not thousands of the population.
I see they panned past the short female agent ducking down behind the podium at the assassination. Hope they have actually canned the DEI disease in the force.
She is the perfect symbol for the Biden-Harris administration– short, clumsy and too incompetent to reholster her weapon, but golly, she looked spiffy in uniform!
First of all, our current secret service reflects the insanity of DEI hiring, secondly, the Butler, PA detail was made up largely of DHS employees who were repurposed through a 1-day crash course in being Secret Service. And yes, it’s really intelligent to feature presidents who were shot while under Secret Service protection! Who is this commercial kidding?
Trump’s personal detail who rushed to cover him were competent but yes, the DHS dweebs must’ve been extremely incompetent, especially the spotters and whoever was in charge, because the Butler cops and whatever other law enforcement officers were there spotted the would be assassin 90 minutes before he got off his shots. He wounded two bystanders a long with Trump and killed one of them, as I’m sure we all know around here.
At least that dumb DEI bitch, former “Director” Kim Cheadle, is gone. That unqualified and incompetent “woke” hire was forced to resign when Trump almost got his head blown off last year. The Deputy Director was the interim Director until Trump was sworn in and he made Sean Curran, the former President of his personal detail, the current Director. He’s one of those guys in the photo above who threw themselves around Trump and the attempted assassin, so hopefully he’ll make as good a leader as an agent.
President Trump and his cabinet members, both the appointed ones and soon to be appointed ones, all say they’re going to purge their respective government agencies, and AG Bonta is going after deep state Dirtbagocrat operatives in all the agencies and bureaucracies she can, not just the DOJ. They aren’t fucking around and they sure aren’t using their positions to illegally persecute political opponents and MAGA supporters, or impose “woke” policies wherever possible. They’re going to war against those policies.
Good times after four years of shit and sabotage.
The S>S> now advertises after their Failure to Guard Trump
Time for DOGE to start looking at their books and spending. At one point the SS and the FBI were premier agencies but the leftists have managed to destroy them. Whatever the leftists touch is left with their rot. These agencies will need to be gutted.
I’ve heard Dan Bongino talk about how the agency uses a great deal of its resources doing investigations. I agree there needs to be an entity that addresses counterfeiting but I don’t agree it should be Secret Service.
Another issue DOGE should look into is just who is getting SS protection. Like all the people recently stripped of their intelligence “clearings”, there needs to be an assessment of who’s getting protection and why. That $3B budget could probably be cut in half without endangering those who truly need protection.
“agents said they marveled at what their Israeli counterparts brought — including a portable security camera network that delivered live feeds from key spots in the prime minister’s hotel. The Secret Service has its own mobile camera system. But agents say it is so unreliable it is rarely used.”
Have they tried child monitors?
I bought one from Germany – via Amazon.
Very effective.
Once upon a time, Israel learned from others. Now the student has become the teacher. The CIA and SS could do with some schooling. In other news, Morocco has apparently given up on a French made mobile cannon system due to reliability issues. They’re now going with an Israeli cannon.
Child monitors are cool and diapers would be good for the DEI hires in the SS.
Child monitors work well but I never used any because I was always with my son and his brother.
“$138 million gets spent on training and professional development.”
Otherwise known as executive salaries.