Secret Service agents 'fed up' with JD Vance's last-minute travel requests: Report

WASHINGTON, DC: Secret Service agents assigned to Vice President JD Vance and his family are reportedly frustrated with the family's frequent last-minute travel changes. Sources told MS NOW that the detail is upset with an arrangement that forces agents to cancel days off and quickly come up with new security plans on short notice.

The report by MS NOW's Carol Leonnig and Vaughn Hillyard stated that agents voiced their complaints last Thursday, July 9, as they got ready for Vance and his son to travel aboard the Marine Two helicopter for the child's golf lesson. The flight was ultimately canceled due to severe thunderstorms and high winds in the Washington, DC, area, but agents had already mobilized by that time.

Sources say JD Vance 'thinks he can still move around like a US Senator'

According to the outlet, the episode was not an isolated incident.

Sources familiar with the situation said the Vance family regularly makes sudden changes to their schedule, a pattern agents have found difficult to manage given the extensive planning and personnel required to secure vice presidential movements.

The Vances have also recently taken several last-minute helicopter trips to the Middleburg, Virginia, area while searching for a home to buy or rent, according to the report.

“They change everything,” one person said. “They don’t stick to their schedules, and that costs s**t-tons of taxpayer money.”

These types of quickly planned trips are known within the Secret Service as “off the record” movements and can force agents to cancel days off and quickly develop new security plans, per the outlet. 

A second source was more direct about the underlying dynamic. "The detail is tired of them not giving notice on things and making everything an OTR," the person said, using the Secret Service term for "off the record" movements. "He thinks he can still move around like a US Senator."

Such unplanned trips require agents to quickly develop new security plans and can force personnel to cancel previously scheduled days off, according to MS NOW.

Secret Service agents have created 'Bobcat OTR Survivors Club' coins and stickers

The frustration has reportedly reached the point where agents have begun marking it with humor, creating custom coins and stickers that read "Bobcat OTR Survivors Club," a reference to Vance's Secret Service code name. The items also carry the motto, "Advance. OTR. Repeat."

One person familiar with the planned golf lesson helicopter trip did not mince words about the episode. "That is RIDICULOUS," the person said, adding that neither former Vice President Mike Pence nor former Vice President Kamala Harris had made similar requests.

While there is no formal Secret Service rule barring a vice president's child from traveling aboard a government helicopter, current and former Secret Service supervisors told the outlet they were unaware of any precedent for the practice.

MS NOW reported that operating Marine Two costs taxpayers between $16,000 and $24,600 per hour.

The vice president’s office praised the agents protecting the family in a statement to MS NOW, saying the Vances are “grateful to the men and women of the US Secret Service who serve our country with distinction.”

A Trump administration official and Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn both defended Vance, saying he is raising a young family and that last-minute changes are sometimes unavoidable given the unpredictable demands of his position.