How Are Secret Service Agents Protecting Presidents Chosen?

The Secret Service is the federal law enforcement agency responsible for protecting U.S. leaders, and the agency has been a fixture in the headlines since the assassination attempt against Donald Trump in July, and then an apparent second assassination attempt against the former president on September 15.

As the agency comes under increased scrutiny, people are wondering how the Secret Service works, and how the agents protecting presidents are chosen.

Newsweek spoke to former Secret Service agent and training instructor for the service, Cheryl Tyler.

Tyler was the first Black female Secret Service agent and worked with Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. She is the author of the memoir, Trailblazer.

Tyler told Newsweek in an interview that when it comes to selecting Secret Service staff to protect presidents, "There is no rhyme or reason."

"There's a whole process in bidding on getting to other positions that you want throughout your time in the Secret Service," she said. "Let's say you start off in a field office, and then, after so many years, you do your protection time. There are opportunities that will be announced, and people submit the application to bid on those positions to try and get into the next one that they want."

"That could be either, some people want to go to a president's detail, some people want to go to a vice president detail. Some want to go to a former detail. It just depends," she said. "There's a process. It's not like somebody sitting around and saying, oh, this person goes here."

"We are nonpolitical," she said. "We stay the length of time we're supposed to stay in an assignment no matter who's in the office."

Tyler explained that once you're on an assignment, you stay there. "If you're assigned to a protective assignment. You stay at that protective assignment for as long as they state that you're there for."

"There is no sitting and picking of who you want and preferential treatment for all of that. There is a legitimate process that people apply for physicians. That's how the entire government works," Tyler told Newsweek.

Tyler also spoke about how the challenges to the Secret Service change depending on the times and who the service is protecting.

Speaking about Trump, Tyler said that "The former president and candidate now is a very active person. He's a very moving person. He travels, he goes he does this. He does more than some of the other former presidents."

Tyler said that Trump has chosen to continue receiving protection from the Secret Service. "Once the president is out of office, they have the choice to sign off from Secret Service. Whether they take that choice or not, that's up to them."

She also addressed the additional challenges on the Secret Service, and said that, "The way society is right now is challenging the personnel demands of the Secret Service, so they do need more humans. They have technology. Of course, they can always use more technology and tools to help them in their work, but they need people," Tyler said.

"It's an agency that is very mystique to a lot of people," Tyler said. "I think everybody wants to know as much as they possibly can about this particular agency, but there's some things they'll never know, and they shouldn't know."

"My former colleagues get up every day, and leave their home, leave their family, to protect the leader of the free world. That is the oath that they took in the constitution."