US Secret Service officers assigned to guard Vice President J.D. Vance and his family are extremely irritated and tired of his constant and insistent demands for personal travel at the last minute. This is clear from an exclusive investigation by the American media MS Now, published in the early hours of today. Tensions in the agency have escalated to the point that agents have begun openly mocking the administration with personalized stickers and souvenir coins.
The military helicopter and golf lesson scandal
The main reason for the discontent is an incident from last week. According to official data of MS Now, Vice President J.D. Vance insisted on a flight on the government's military helicopter “Marine Two“ so that his son, who is in elementary school, could be transported for a private golf lesson.
The flight was ultimately canceled due to severe thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds in the Washington area. However, the very attempt to use military equipment for such purposes has caused a wave of discontent among Secret Service veterans. Representatives of the agency's leadership confirmed to the media that while there is no explicit written rule prohibiting the children of vice presidents from riding in government helicopters, such a precedent for purely recreational purposes is unknown in modern US history.
According to expert calculations cited by MS Now and The Independent, an hour-long flight on the “Marine Two“ helicopter costs American taxpayers between $16,000 and $24,600.
Chronic staff shortages and secret mockery
Secret Service sources say the Vance family's whims are putting extraordinary pressure on the already overstretched agency. Trips organized outside of preliminary protocol (known in the sector as “off the record“ movements) are forcing agents to cancel their days off en masse and rewrite plans for security within hours.
According to a report by the Inspectorate, cited in the American press, the Secret Service suffers from a staff shortage of more than 20%. This shortage was also at the root of the failures during the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024. Now employees complain that instead of focusing on real threats, they are forced to act as a “luxury taxi company“ for the vice president's family.
The frustration among the security guards has reached the point that agents have ordered special badges and stickers that mock Vance's obsession with last-minute travel. The souvenirs use the vice president's Secret Service code name – „Bobcat“ (Bobcat), accompanied by ironic captions like „Club of Survivors of Extra-Protocol Travel“.
Previous Abuse of State Resources
This is not the first time that Vance's security has sparked public outrage. The British newspaper The Guardian recalls a case in which, at the request of the Secret Service, the US Army Corps of Engineers changed the flow rates of a dam in Ohio so that the Vance family could safely kayak during a private vacation. Separately, the vice president's trips to England have led to mass protests by local residents over the blockade of entire villages and the construction of temporary helipads for his convenience.
As of the time of publication (5:45 a.m. Bulgarian time), the office of Vice President J.D. Vance has not yet issued an official position or comment on the revelations of MS Now.