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Secret Service target of misogynistic backlash after Donald Trump assassination attempt

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Secret Service target of misogynistic backlash after Donald Trump assassination attempt

Mere hours after a cadre of Secret Service agents risked their lives to shield Donald Trump from a would-be assassin’s fire, members of the former president’s security detail were themselves coming under attack.

“There should not be any women in the Secret Service,” rightwing commentator Matt Walsh wrote on X, posting a video showing three female agents ushering Trump into an SUV. “These are supposed to be the very best, and none of the very best at this job are women.”

Amid the intense scrutiny of the agency’s alleged failings in preventing Saturday’s assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, misogynist views like Walsh’s have been endorsed by several influential voices on the right. 

X owner Elon Musk posted that he believed the women in the detail were too “small” to cover Trump and had not been selected on merit, while hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman suggested that so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies contributed to the incident.

The backlash was not confined to the loudest voices on social media. Republican congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who achieved a level of notoriety for saying “we are not going to fix it” following a school shooting in his state, told Fox News that Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle was a “DEI initiative person” and suggested that “this is what happens when you don’t put the best players in”.

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He and other commentators have referred to Cheatle’s pledge to ensure that 30 per cent of the agency’s staff was female by the end of the decade.

Secret Service agents after the attempted assassination of Trump. Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the agency, is set to appear before the House oversight committee on Monday © Evan Vucci/AP

Burchett sits on the Republican-led House oversight committee, which is due to grill Cheatle — who is the second woman to preside over the protection agency and rose through the ranks in a decades-long career — over the Trump assassination attempt at a hearing on Monday.

Advocates for more diversity in national security personnel say they are concerned about the impact of such rhetoric.

“People feel safer in numbers, and so the more people like Tim Burchett say stuff [that is] so obviously misogynist and sexist, the more others who already feel it feel like they’re going to be able to get away with saying it,” said Gina Bennett, who spent 34 years in the CIA and champions the inclusion of women in defence ranks.

“What I think it does is continue to make acceptable sexism, racism, misogyny — because people just get numb to it,” she added.

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The Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment, but the agency has previously said that all agents were held to the same standards. A spokesperson for Burchett said “the Congressman has said many times, “put the best player in, coach”.

The attacks on the Secret Service’s so-called DEI agenda, which were also endorsed by former attorney-general William Barr and Republican congressman Cory Mills, who is a former army sniper, are the latest front in a long-running war against diversity and inclusion policies being waged by allies of Trump in Congress, the courts and on college campuses.

Over the protestations of the Biden administration, the last National Defense Authorization Act passed into law with a clause that prohibits the government from establishing new DEI positions within the defence department, and from employing anyone whose primary duty it is to craft diversity and inclusion policies, or measure outcomes of such schemes.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15 2024
Donald Trump arrives on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Security Service agents who flanked him were all male © Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

While the Secret Service has employed female special agents for more than half a century, its recruitment policies have only recently drawn the ire of Republican politicians.

Earlier this year, the Oversight Committee brought up DEI policies in a letter to Cheatle following an incident involving a Secret Service agent on vice-president Kamala Harris’s protective detail who was later removed from duty after an alleged attack on her superior. 

The matter “raised concerns within the agency about the hiring and screening process for this agent: specifically whether previous incidents in her work history were overlooked during the hiring process . . . as part of a diversity, equity and inclusion effort”, committee chair James Comer wrote.

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While the Secret Service has been plagued by past scandals involving male colleagues, such as the alleged procurement of prostitutes in Colombia and drunk driving near the White House, the response to the Trump attack has seen some “seizing [on] specific physical features to indict an entire population”, said Lauren Bean Buitta, founder of Girl Security, which campaigns for diversity in the security establishment.

Bennett, who now teaches at Georgetown’s Centre for Security Studies, said: “Somebody is going to have to point to me the medical anatomical proof that being born with a uterus, somehow or another, makes me less capable of identifying a threat and neutralising a threat.”

Despite the attacks on diversity and inclusion, there had been a “huge rise” in the number of young women interested in national security careers, according to Girl Security. Buitta said it would be “extraordinarily impactful” to have leaders of the respective presidential campaigns condemn the sexist comments, which she warned could “stir up additional hate”.

But the vitriol poured over the women in Donald Trump’s detail may already be having an effect. As he walked on to the floor of the Republican convention in Milwaukee on Monday evening, the former president was flanked by a dozen Secret Service agents — all male.

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Trump Paralyzes Independent Rights Watchdog, Firing Members Selected by Democrats

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Trump Paralyzes Independent Rights Watchdog, Firing Members Selected by Democrats

President Trump on Monday fired the three Democratic-selected members of an independent civil liberties watchdog agency, leaving it paralyzed as Mr. Trump’s administration starts to put its stamp on the F.B.I. and intelligence community.

Last week, the day after Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Trent Morse, the deputy director of presidential personnel, sent emails to the agency, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, ordering the three members — Sharon Bradford Franklin, Edward W. Felten and Travis LeBlanc — to submit their resignations by that deadline, saying Mr. Trump would terminate them if they did not.

But the deadline came and went. Having received no further word, the three remained in their positions on Friday, when the board released a long-in-the-works study of terrorism watchlists, which keep people off planes or subject them to extra screening at airports.

On Monday afternoon, however, Mr. Morse sent emails to the three members of the board informing them of their dismissals. The New York Times reviewed one of the emails, and Ms. Franklin and Mr. LeBlanc confirmed that all three had been fired.

Mr. Trump did not remove the sole Republican-selected member, Beth Williams, and a fifth seat was already vacant.

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But the agency needs at least three members to take official actions like starting a new investigative project or issuing a board report with a policy recommendation, so the move has crippled its ability to function.

Mr. Trump would have been able to appoint a Republican majority even without the firings. Mr. Felten had been set to stay on until as late as January 2026, and Mr. LeBlanc till January 2029. But the tenure of Ms. Franklin, the board’s chairwoman, was about to end.

In a statement, Ms. Franklin called the firings unnecessary, while also expressing regret that the board would be unable to issue a planned report on a data privacy agreement between the European Union and the United States.

“This isn’t about me — my term was set to end later this week anyway,” she said. “But I am devastated by the attack on the board’s independence and the fact that our agency will have too few members to issue official reports.”

Congress established the agency as an independent unit in the executive branch after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to investigate national security activities that can intrude upon individual rights, like the government’s use of surveillance affecting Americans.

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It has security clearances and subpoena power, and is set up to have five members, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, who serve six-year terms and can stay on for another after that if no successor has been confirmed. Some members are picked by the president, and some are selected by congressional leaders of the other party.

In a statement, Mr. LeBlanc thanked Mr. Trump for having appointed him in his first term, after Democrats selected him, but said that cutting short the terms Congress had intended the Democratic members to serve would undermine the board’s independence in performing oversight work that is “absolutely essential to accountability in a democracy.”

“I regret that the board’s partisan shift will ultimately undermine not only the mission of the agency, but public trust and confidence in the ability of the government to honor privacy rights, respect civil liberties, honestly inform the public, and follow the law,” Mr. LeBlanc said.

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Scott Bessent pushes gradual 2.5% universal US tariffs plan

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Scott Bessent pushes gradual 2.5% universal US tariffs plan

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Donald Trump’s Treasury secretary Scott Bessent is pushing for new universal tariffs on US imports to start at 2.5 per cent and rise gradually, according to four people familiar with the proposal.

The 2.5 per cent levy would move higher by the same amount each month, the people familiar with it said, giving businesses time to adjust and countries the chance to negotiate with the US president’s administration.

The levies could be pushed up to as high as 20 per cent — in line with Trump’s maximalist position on the campaign trail last year. But a gradual introduction would be more moderate than the immediate action some countries feared.

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Two people familiar with the discussions said it was unclear if Bessent had convinced other central stakeholders, including Howard Lutnick, Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, to adopt his proposal.

Tariff policy is already at the centre of fierce trade debates between hawks such as Peter Navarro and Jamieson Greer, and moderates such as Bessent. The Wall Street investor was comfortably confirmed as the next US Treasury secretary by a Senate vote of 68-29 on Monday evening.

Trump has threatened to force tariffs of up to 25 per cent on imports from Canada and Mexico as soon as this weekend, and in recent days threatened Colombia with 25 per cent tariffs in a dispute over deportees.

Another person familiar with Trump’s thinking said he was weighing different options. “There is not a single plan the president is ready to decide on yet.”

A person familiar with Bessent’s thinking declined to comment on the record about the proposal, but said: “He is not drawing up any plans but if confirmed looks forward to being a part of the conversation.”

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While Bessent and other proponents of the low initial tariff believe it would give countries and companies time to adjust and negotiate, critics counter that a higher initial rate would send a clearer message.

Trump made high tariffs a core of his “America First” campaign rhetoric last year, vowing in September to “tax” foreign nations “at levels that they’re not used to”.

But since his inauguration on January 20, the president’s main move has been to publish a memorandum outlining probes into US trade policy, the cause of the country’s trade deficits and whether competitors are manipulating currencies and unfairly taxing US businesses.

When asked by reporters last week whether he planned to introduce universal tariffs, Trump replied: “We may. But we’re not ready for that yet.”

Trade analysts and lawyers have said Trump could levy universal tariffs swiftly by using executive powers such as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which allows the president to respond to emergencies through economic means.

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However, trade experts have also warned that the use of IEEPA to issue broad tariffs would likely face legal challenges by business groups.

Trump, who has long railed against the US’s trade deficit, has suggested that tariffs would be a way to raise revenue for the country.

“Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” he said in his inaugural address.

In his US Senate confirmation hearings last week, Bessent said that the Trump administration would use tariffs to tackle unfair trade practices, raise US government revenues, and strike deals with foreign countries.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

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Additional reporting by Myles McCormick in Washington

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How districts are responding after Trump cleared the way for immigration arrests at schools

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How districts are responding after Trump cleared the way for immigration arrests at schools

A deportation officer with Enforcement and Removal Operations in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New York City field office conducts a brief before an early morning operation on Dec. 17, 2024, in the Bronx borough of New York.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP


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Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

President Donald Trump has put an end to a longstanding policy that restricted federal agents from making immigration arrests at sensitive locations like churches, hospitals and schools.

The Migration Policy Institute estimates 733,000 school-aged children live in the United States without legal status.

Chalkbeat reporter Kalyn Belsha says districts across the country are now educating their teachers, students and parents on how this change in policy may affect their schools.

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“They’re preparing for the possibility that things could be happening outside the school while families are dropping their children off or potentially waiting at their bus stop,” Belsha says. “But then also, what would they do if an agent actually knocked on the door and said, ‘I would like to come in potentially to talk to a staff member or a parent or a child?’”

The fear has led parents in some cities to keep their children home from school.

3 questions with Kalyn Belsha

Are you hearing of instances of immigration agents showing up to schools?

“We had an incident happen in Chicago on Friday where there were some federal agents that showed up at a school asking to come in to interview an 11-year-old who had posted an anti-Trump video on TikTok.

“They presented their credentials, they said [they were] Department of Homeland Security. The school was confused and said, ‘No, you cannot come in.’

“It turned out they were actually from the Secret Service, which does not enforce immigration law, but the school activated its protocol as if it were protecting that student, and said, ‘You can’t come in because you don’t have a signed warrant.’

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“It created all kinds of confusion and no one really understood what was going on for hours until we finally got confirmation that it was Secret Service.

“I think that’s the kind of example of, even if it isn’t an ICE agent, it creates all kinds of chaos for the school and for the school communities. We have not seen a documented evidence yet of an agent coming in to get a student.”

What are you hearing of the fears of the parents of students?

“I think that the more common thing we’ve seen play out has been workplace raids that have had huge ripple effects on children and schools. Sometimes children have gone home and their parent hasn’t been there, or the school has had to find an alternate place for them to stay because the parent didn’t come pick them up.

“We’ve also seen teenagers having to step up and be the parent and kind of try to figure out how to explain to their much younger siblings what’s going on. Often some family members have been released on humanitarian parole, mothers often, but then some are detained for a really long time and that really affects the family.

“So we’re going to have to figure out what happens now, whether or not there are people who are released on humanitarian parole or if family members are detained for much longer periods of time.”

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Are schools already experiencing effects of this policy change?

“In New York City, a colleague of mine spoke with several parents who were from migrant families who are staying in city shelters, and they said that they kept their kids home for several days last week.

“So I think it’s not totally widespread yet, but in certain instances some family members have decided to keep their kids home out of fear.”

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Hafsa Quraishi produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Michael Scotto. Quraishi adapted it for the web. This segment aired on Here & Now on Jan. 27, 2025.

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