President Donald Trump confirmed that a Secret Service agent tried to sneak his wife on board a support plane accompanying him to his trip to Scotland.
The story, first reported by the Herald newspaper of Glasgow, was confirmed by Trump on Air Force One during his trip back to Washington, D.C.
“Wouldn’t you think it might be a little dangerous?” Trump said of the matter.
“That’s a weird deal,” he said, adding that Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran will “take care of it.”
According to a statement from the Secret Service, the agent flew his wife to Maryland, where she received a briefing. She then took a bus to Joint Air Base Andrews and was caught while in the distinguished visitors’ lounge. Authorities asked her to leave and have since launched an investigation.
The wife, an Air Force member, was attempting to board a support flight operated by the Air Force that “was being used by the Secret Service to transport personnel and equipment.”
“Prior to the overseas departure, the employee was advised by supervisors that such action was prohibited, and the spouse was subsequently prevented from taking the flight. No Secret Service protectees were aboard, and there was no impact to our overseas protective operation,” the statement to the Herald said.
The episode marks another embarrassment for the Secret Service, following a beleaguered year for the organization.
SECRET SERVICE COMPLIANT WITH NEARLY HALF OF CONGRESSIONAL REFORM REQUESTS
The Secret Service experienced its greatest failure since 1981 last year, when Trump was shot while at a Butler rally. Subsequent investigations found a variety of security failures, prompting renewed calls for reform.
Despite the failure to prevent the assassination attempt against him, Trump has been lenient with the organization publicly, telling Fox News earlier this month that he has “great confidence” in the Secret Service and excused the 2024 incident as agents having had a “bad day.”
