Trump Nixes Secret Service Protection For Hunter And Ashley Biden

Hunter Biden and his half-sister Ashley Biden will be stripped of their Secret Service protection, Donald Trump announced Monday.

“Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time, all paid for by the United States Taxpayer,” President Trump wrote on his social media website Truth Social. “He is currently vacationing in, of all places, South Africa, where the Human Rights of people has been strenuously questioned.”

The directive will remove 18 agents assigned to protect Hunter and 13 who guard Ashley, Trump wrote.

Only former presidents and their spouses receive lifelong Secret Service protection while coverage for their immediate family members typically ends when they leave office under government policy.

It’s unclear why Hunter, 54, and Ashley, 43, continued to receive Secret Service protection after former President Joe Biden left office earlier this year. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

But it could leave the only surviving son of the former president vulnerable at a time when political violence has surged in the U.S.

Hunter Biden, who was convicted of gun and tax charges last year, has long been a focus of intense anger and threats from allies of Trump. President Biden pardoned him at the end of his term, breaking an earlier pledge that he would not interfere in the legal problems of his son.