Are they getting extra hazard pay?

Trump’s insistence on traveling and holding campaign-style events amid the pandemic has heightened the risks for the people who safeguard his life, intensifying the strain on the Secret Service.

[...]

When President Trump gave a speech to a group of sheriffs in Tampa late last month, his decision to travel forced a large contingent of Secret Service agents to head to a state that was then battling one of the worst coronavirus surges in the nation.

Even before Air Force One touched down on July 31, the fallout was apparent: Five Secret Service agents already on the ground had to be replaced after one tested positive for the coronavirus and the others working in proximity were presumed to be infected, according to people familiar with the situation.

[...]

In the past two months, dozens of Secret Service agents who worked to ensure the security of the president and Vice President Pence at public events have been sickened or sidelined because they were in direct contact with infected people.

[...]

“Never before has the Secret Service run up against a president so intent on putting himself first regardless of the costs, including to those around him,” said Ned Price, a national security expert and former CIA analyst. “And by maintaining a rigorous travel schedule and otherwise flouting public health guidance, he is demanding that agents add to their already considerable professional risk in ways that are qualitatively different than what they signed up for.”

[...]

“When preparing for and carrying out any travel, White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office, to ensure plans incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting covid-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible,” [White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.]

  WaPo

Exposure for HIM.

Secret Service Director James Murray told personnel last month in staff messages that the numbers of positive cases had been rising, a trend he attributed to the agency’s increased testing in previous weeks, according to two people familiar with the communication.

Thaaaaaaaat's right. If they didn't test, they wouldn't have cases.

In recent weeks, the agency has steadily ramped up its efforts to fend off the virus. To prepare for the pared-down Democratic and Republican conventions this month in Milwaukee and Charlotte, the Secret Service increased testing protocols, requiring that any employee traveling to either convention be tested before leaving for the assignment and within a few days after returning, according to administration officials.

The regimen was put in place after some discontent and anxiety percolated inside the agency earlier this summer, with agents and officers privately complaining that the White House and the Secret Service were not properly addressing the risks they faced on the road, according to people familiar with the concerns. Testing and protective equipment had been offered sparingly and inconsistently, some argued.

[...]

[T]wo agents who were assigned to stand guard at Trump’s private club in Bedminster, N.J., fell sick with coronavirus symptoms this month while the president golfed. It was his third trip there this summer. One law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions said agents on the president’s detail warned colleagues on the Bedminster trip not to share information about the illness because media coverage would anger the president.

To quote Dick Cheney, So?

Milhoan said agents did not test positive for the coronavirus at Bedminster, but she declined to comment on whether agents working at the site fell ill or were replaced.

I take that as a yes.

The men and women of the Secret Service live by a unique code, one in which they pledge that they are willing to take a bullet for the president to safeguard a stable democracy.

But this new virus that has killed nearly 180,000 Americans in eight months has prompted some to ask a new question: Should they be required to risk contracting a lethal disease — and infecting a loved one — to secure an event that does not follow health protocols?

The stakes were driven home in June, when six advance staffers and two agents tested positive for the virus hours before Trump took the stage in a Tulsa arena for a campaign rally that health officials warned could accelerate the spread of the outbreak.

The Secret Service was forced to order dozens of agents to quarantine for two weeks after returning from Oklahoma, creating a strain to find agents to cover for their assignments. A third agent later tested positive.

[...]

Days later, supervisors had to scramble to find enough healthy agents for a security team to prepare for a Pence trip to Arizona on June 30.

[...]

Before Pence’s visit, however, some of the agents who were preparing for his arrival in Arizona — at the time a hot zone for the virus — fell ill. The vice president was forced to postpone his trip to give the Secret Service time to round up healthy replacements.

[...]

Secret Service agents providing security for the president have sought to avoid commercial planes so they are not exposed to the traveling public, meaning that they at times have had to drive hundreds of miles to reach their assignments, government officials confirm. Agents helping coordinate security for the president’s visually dramatic celebration with fireworks in front of Mount Rushmore on the night of July 3 drove in their own cars from regional field offices as far away as Texas to reach the South Dakota landmark, the officials said.

The Secret Service recently began contracting charter planes to transport agents to key events, including the Democratic National Convention.

[...]

Although everyone aboard the plane to Milwaukee wore protective masks and kept several seats open for social distancing, one agent on the plane tested positive for the coronavirus upon arriving, an administration official said. The official said the Secret Service relieved from duty a few agents who sat in proximity to the infected agent and instructed them to quarantine.

Fucking nuts.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.