Democrats have accused Trump of ‘another act of revenge following a long list of political retaliation’
MINNEAPOLIS – You may be tempted to think the decision by Donald Trump to end US Secret Service protection for Kamala Harris was further evidence the American president was losing his marbles.
Given the fact Trump himself survived two assassination attempts, what right-thinking person would cancel security for his one-time rival as she is about to embark on a national tour to promote a new memoir?
But this is no mistake.
This is not some slip by an individual whose physical well being and mental acuity has been questioned by his own supporters and whose critics claim may be suffering from dementia.
It is something far more dangerous than that.
Harris, 60, whose book 107 Days takes its title from the brief nature of her campaign after she was shifted to the top of the Democratic ticket amid mounting concern about Joe Biden’s fading abilities, has become the latest in a series of people to lose their Secret Service protection under Trump’s orders.
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Dr Anthony Fauci, a senior official at the National Institutes of Health, all lost their protection after Trump returned to the White House.
They had been granted it either because of a perceived threat from a foreign actor – in the cases of Pompeo and Bolton there was evidence Iran were plotting against them – or because of controversial jobs they held that had triggered public anger. For years Fauci was one the loudest champions of using vaccines and facemasks to combat Covid, an issue that became dangerously politicised.
Trump has railed against all of them.
Trump, 79, has made no effort to hide his disdain for Harris, often attacking her in racist and derogatory terms, alleging she was “dumb as a rock” and had a “low IQ”.
Since losing to Trump last November, the former vice president considered for some time running to be governor of California, before deciding against it.
And while she has not been a constant critic of Trump, she has spoken out at key moments.
In a speech that came 100 days into his presidency, she said: “Instead of an administration working to advance America’s highest ideals, we are witnessing the wholesale abandonment of those ideals.”
In August, after announcing she was not seeking any further public office whatsoever, she appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to denounce the state of politics and say she did not think she could change the system from within.
“I don’t want to go back in the system. I think it’s broken,” she said.
“I always believed that, as fragile as our democracy is, our systems would be strong enough to defend our most fundamental principles, and I think right now, that they’re not as strong as they need to be.”
While former presidents receive protection for life, Harris, as a former vice president, received six months. It had been extended by Biden for a further year. Usually such decisions are based on perceived threat level, and Harris will now lose both the agents protecting her and her home, and access to proactive threat intelligence.
Harris reportedly faced particular security concerns given that she was the first woman and first black woman to be vice-president.
A spokesman for the California Governor Gavin Newsom expressed outrage at the news. “The safety of our public officials should never be subject to erratic, vindictive political impulses,” he told CNN.
The Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass accused Trump of “another act of revenge following a lost list of political retaliation in the form of firings, the revoking of security clearances and more”.
Trump, who has also cancelled the protection of Mark Esper, his former defence secretary, and Biden’s adult children Hunter and Ashley Biden, was previously asked about his move to remove protections to people such as Bolton.
“When you have protection, you can’t have it for the rest of your life,” he said. “You don’t want a large detail of people guarding people the rest of their lives. I mean there are risks to everything.”
On other occasions he has claimed former officials should pay for their protection as they had made a lot of money from their government work.
Yet for a man who vowed his second term would be one of “retribution”, that’s exactly what this looks like.
His term so far has seen him relentlessly attack and pursue people he deems to have slighted him; former General Mark Milley, universities that refused to scrap their diversity programmes, law firms that represented Democrats, and companies that suggested his economic policies harmed the country. This is pure vindictiveness.
At the same time, he has pardoned hundreds of people convicted for their actions in the riots on 6 January 2021 when they answered his call to try and overturn the electoral victory of Biden.
Trump seems to have one clear idea – to intimidate and silence anyone who might speak out. (Earlier this month, FBI agents raided the house of Bolton, who has been one of his most persistent critics on Ukraine and Putin.)
Is Trump hoping to threaten Harris, to date America’s only female vice-president and just the second woman to be on top of the ticket of a major party?
Is he hoping as she tours the country promoting her book, and is asked about her campaign against him, she will temper any criticism she may have of the man who beat her?
Who knows. One thing that seems obvious is that this was no mistake or oversight by Trump.
It would have been so much better if that was the case.
