Secret Service Detail Voices Frustration Over Vance Family Helicopter Trips

Vice President J.D. Vance’s Secret Service detail has voiced frustration over a pattern of last-minute travel requests that required military helicopter flights for the vice president’s family, The Washington Times reported. Agents grew unhappy last Thursday while preparing to fly Mr.

Vance’s young son on Marine Two to a golf lesson at Joint Base Andrews. The flight was canceled at the last minute because of severe thunderstorms and high winds in the Washington region. After the report appeared, Mr.

Vance’s office told reporters that future trips to the golf lesson would be made by SUV rather than helicopter. There is no formal Secret Service policy barring a vice president’s child from riding a government helicopter to a local event. Current and former supervisors said they knew of no precedent for such a request and that prior vice presidents typically had agents drive their children locally in SUVs.

Operating the helicopter costs taxpayers between $16,000 and $24,600 per hour, according to 2022 Defense Department budget estimates. One person familiar with the planned trip said Pence and Harris never pulled anything like that. The Vances have three children ages 9, 6 and 4, and second lady Usha Vance is expecting the couple’s fourth child later this month.

Anonymous sources cited in the report said the family has taken multiple last-minute helicopter trips to the Middleburg, Virginia, area while house-hunting. The Vances are the first vice-presidential family with young children to live at the Naval Observatory since Al Gore’s family more than 25 years ago.

The frequency of unscheduled trips, known inside the Secret Service as “off the record” movements, has forced agents to scramble to build new security plans with little notice.