President Donald Trump has pulled the plug on U.S. Secret Service protection for Hunter and Ashley Biden, effective immediately. The decision, announced Monday via Truth Social, ends what Trump called an unnecessary and costly security detail funded by American taxpayers.
“Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time,” Trump wrote. “There are as many as 18 people on this Detail, which is ridiculous! Please be advised that, effective immediately, Hunter Biden will no longer receive Secret Service protection.”
Ashley Biden, who had 13 agents assigned to her, will also lose her detail. The Secret Service confirmed the directive, stating that it is “actively working with the protective details and the White House to ensure compliance as soon as possible.”
Under federal law, former presidents and their spouses receive lifelong Secret Service protection, but their children over the age of 16 do not. However, both Biden and Trump previously extended protection for their children for six months after leaving office. Biden, notably, had allowed Barron Trump to keep his protection after his 16th birthday.
Trump’s post also took aim at South Africa, where Hunter Biden is reportedly vacationing. The former president criticized the country’s policies, specifically its land expropriation law, which allows for government seizure of land without compensation.
Trump argued that these policies discriminate against white landowners and announced that South Africa would be removed from the U.S. list of countries receiving economic and financial assistance.
Adding fuel to the diplomatic fire, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that South Africa’s ambassador to the U.S., Ebrahim Rasool, is “no longer welcome” in the country.
Rubio’s announcement followed a webinar in which Rasool accused the Trump administration and the MAGA movement of fueling “a supremacist assault” on American politics, citing demographic shifts that are reducing the white voting population.
Rubio didn’t hold back in his response, calling Rasool a “race-baiting politician” who harbors clear animosity toward Trump. The Florida senator went a step further, declaring Rasool persona non grata in the U.S.