130 Secret Service Agents: Trump Under Fire After Team’s COVID Spike

More than 130 Secret Service officers are in isolation or quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus or coming in contact with a co-worker that had the virus, sources have told The Washington Post.

The news comes after Donald Trump held a series of early November campaign rallies in his bid for a second term as president. These rallies captured crowds of Trump supporters, some of which were maskless and ignored social distancing guidelines, and are believed to be linked to the Secret Service virus cases.

About 10% of the Secret Service’s team is out because of the virus.

The number of rallies that Trump held intensified over the last days of his campaign. The sitting president's Nov. 2 appearances required five separate teams of 20 Secret Service officers that made stops in Fayetteville, North Carolina; Scranton, Pennsylvania; Traverse City, Michigan; Kenosha, and Grand Rapids, Wisconsin. While on duty, Secret Service officers screened rally attendees and secured perimeters.

While President-elect Joe Biden also held campaign rallies in the days leading up to the election, his events were smaller and required less protection. On Nov. 2, Biden made two campaign stops compared to Trump’s five.

Twitter had some strong reactions to the news of the Secret Service agents being infected with the virus. The phrase "130 Secret Service" trended on the platform on Friday as a result.

One Twitter user said while their job is to protect the president at all costs, “they should never have to 'take an infection' in the service of the President's ego.”

Another user pointed out that their vote went to Biden because of Trump's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Others on Twitter suggested that Trump did not care about the White House outbreak, saying that he was “likely going golfing this weekend.”

The Secret Service agency has about 1,300 officers in the Uniformed Division, which are used to protect the White House and Vice President Pence’s residence. The officers are also used for presidential trips and official events.

This is not the first account of the Secret Service agency feeling the pinch of the coronavirus. Dozens of officers fell ill with the virus or were forced to quarantine after a Trump indoor stadium rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June and in preparation for a planned trip to Arizona for Pence in July.

When Trump contracted COVID-19 in early October, he was also criticized for putting Secret Service officers at risk to drive him around the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was being treated, to wave to his supporters.

The U.S. leads the world in positive coronavirus cases with over 10.6 million. It has had over 242,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to John Hopkins University data.