The Trump campaign has made official requests for military assets, including the use of military aircraft, as an added security measure during the final weeks of his presidential campaign.
The requests, in response to ongoing threats to the former president’s life, were detailed in stories published by The New York Times and The Washington Post.
The Times gave details of the requests, which “included sophisticated, classified military assets that are used only for sitting presidents; the pre-placement of ballistic, or bullet-resistant, glass in the main battleground states where he would be campaigning most frequently; and an expansion of temporary flight restrictions over Mr. Trump’s residences and campaign sites.”
“The requests are extraordinary and unprecedented — no nominee in recent history has been ferried around in military planes ahead of an election,” The Washington Post noted.
“But the requests came after Trump’s campaign advisers received briefings in which the government said Iran is still actively plotting to kill him, according to the emails reviewed by The Post and the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive discussions. Trump advisers have grown concerned about drones and missiles, according to the people.”
The Post reviewed email exchanges between campaign managed Susie Wiles and Ronald Rowe Jr., the head of the Secret Service, in which Wiles complained about the former president’s Secret Service protection and said that the Trump campaign had to cancel an event at the last minute because of concerns about the adequacy of the protection available.
Trump has already started travelling with additional planes, and “officials are also taking the precaution of dividing his motorcade at times and putting Trump in nondescript planes that do not have his name on the side instead of his longtime 757 jet,” the Post reported.
On Friday, for the first time, President Joe Biden said that Donald Trump should receive the same Secret Service protections as if “he were sitting president.”
Biden added, “give him all the he needs. If it fits within that category, that’s fine. But if it doesn’t, he shouldn’t [get it].”
Greater Israel and America’s Holy War