Former U.S. presidents are authorized a security detail from the Secret Service for life. If Trump loses the election and flees the country, does his security detail have to go with him if he requests it?

I imagine this could go down in a variety of ways: He departs the U.S. before he’s sentenced and just never returns, or he attempts to flees or does flees the U.S. after his sentencing. Either way, what happens to his security detail?

If he attempts to flees after he’s sentenced, I would hope the detail would refuse to take part in it (if he can even board a plane/leave the country to begin with), but given all their failings, who knows.

  • robolemmy@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    181
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    2 months ago

    AFAIK ex-presidents aren’t allowed to leave the country without specific permission, due to all the classified crap in their heads. If one tried to flee the country, it would be their detail’s duty to detain them.

    Heck, they’re not even allowed to drive in public roads… not that Trump has probably ever driven a car.

    • SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      60
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      You could say the same about running off with boxes of classified docs and keeping them in a bathroom. Reality is they don’t care as long as he’s alive

    • 2pt_perversion@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      2 months ago

      No, most of this is untrue. Ex Presidents can refuse secret service detail. They are allowed to drive on public roads - that is a secret service rule that they can’t but it’s not against the law and Presidents don’t have to follow those rules. And they are allowed to live outside the US if a host country allows them.

    • barsquid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      But why bother? He has already sold everything he knows along with the contents of the documents he stole.

    • SoylentBlake
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      You’re mistaken. Ex-presidents are actually granted a diplomatic passport to promote them going abroad and engaging in diplomacy/building foreign relations.

      The Secret Service do take their orders from the sitting pres, and if Harris wins and Drumpf looks like a flight risk, Harris could suspend his passport or order the SS to forcibly initiate his expedition from…say…less likely to cooperate counties.

      If the Secret Service defects with him, then due to the knowledge they have I would imagine a strike would almost immediately be carried out. That being said, I’m damn near positive that the Pentagon knows where Donny is at any given moment, down to what seat in any limo he is sitting in.

      That being said, we have missiles that will take out individuals in cars without hurting the other occupants. They come in low and supersonic and right before impact they splay out 4 2-3ft long blades, no explosion. I’m dead serious, the brass are quite proud of this weapon. It is a massive flex geopolitically.