🚨🚨INTERNAL SECRET SERVICE CONCERNS GROW AFTER DHS SEC MULLIN PATS HIMSELF AND USSS DIRECTOR ON THE BACK FOR RUSHING HIRING
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin recently patted himself and Secret Service senior leaders on the back for their success in responding to an acute Secret Service manpower crisis.
But senior agents and former agents argue the process is so rushed that it's lowering standards and compromising the protection of President Trump, his family and Cabinet amid an unprecedented threat level.
Members of Congress and whistleblowers have raised similar concerns about the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement — that they too have lowered standards when it comes to past drug use and qualifications to fill recruitment goals.
With the Secret Service’s zero-fail mission, the stakes are much higher: The president’s, vice president’s and Cabinet members’ lives are literally on the line, along with the country’s continuity of government.
Mullin recently awarded the Secret Service’s human capital team the 2026 DHS Secretary's Team Excellence Award for its successful implementation of the Accelerated Candidate Event (ACE) Initiative and related surge of hiring operations.
The secretary's award is the highest honorary recognition given for significant achievement within the DHS workforce.
The Secret Service ACE Initiative is attempting to address the challenge of fulfilling its mission with a massive staff shortage — estimated by some to be in the thousands of agents and officers — after years of attrition and low morale that recruitment and training have failed to adequately address.
The Secret Service’s senior leaders have touted the ACE recruiting initiative as streamlining the standard lengthy onboarding process for new hires (typically 120 days) to less than one week.
The initiative condenses six resource-heavy, pre-employment screening requirements, which include the entrance exam, physical abilities test, security interview, and polygraph exam into a single four-day processing event that candidates must successfully complete before being hired as an officer or a special agent.
So far, there have been four Secret Service ACE events, between November 2025 and August 2026, at the National Conference Center in Leesburg, VA.
Although Secret Service recruitment numbers have reportedly multiplied due to the ACE Initiative, several critics — both within the agency and in the retired Secret Service community — have repeatedly noted that the streamlining of the application process has resulted in the lowered vetting standards. Now the agency is celebrating the onboarding of many sub-standard recruits who would have normally been disqualified under the previous screening requirements.
A whistleblower also has filed formal complaints with government watchdog agencies alleging Secret Service contract fraud, waste and abuse, including kickbacks, associated with the ACE initiative. It is currently under investigation.
“Increasing the numbers of officers and agents is needed, but not by lowering the screening standards, which increases the likelihood of potential insider threats,” one retired Secret Service agent tells
@RCPolitics.
Instead of rushing the vetting process, the agent suggested streamlining the Secret Service's protection obligations that are straining manpower. Visiting heads of state should be the responsibility of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Services, not the Secret Service, the former agent said. Protecting large-scale venues from terrorists, such as the Superbowl, World Cup, and the Olympics could be a DHS or FBI responsibility, not the fall under Secret Service duties.
Rich Starapoli, a longtime former agent, said problems with rushing recruiting are exacerbated because the Secret Service doesn’t have the training capacity to make up for the lack of law enforcement experience for a growing number of new hires.
“You can hire as many people as you want, but at some point they’ve all got to go through training,” he said. “The Secret Service training facility simply doesn’t have the manpower and the resources to accommodate that many people in such a short time. This is not the NYPD or the Chicago PD where you can put 800 people through a class at a time.”
“With increased hiring, the numbers will be there, but you’ve incredibly compromised the quality of who you’re bringing in,” he continued. “You’ve compromised the ability to monitor people to make sure you have, in fact, hired the right people…ultimately, I think you’re setting yourself up for disaster here.”
Congress provided the Department of Homeland Security with a monumental fiscal 2026 budget of about $48 billion for DHS, with roughly $3.25–3.3 billion designated for the Secret Service. The Secret Service also has separate mandatory money from the 2025 reconciliation law: $1.17 billion for "additional United States Secret Service resources," including a newly authorized set of performance, retention, and signing bonuses.
Noem's tenure as DHS Secretary was terminated by President Trump in March 2026, following reports of wasteful spending of over $225 million dollars for public relations ads that included a controversial $1 million recruitment ad starring then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and USSS Director Curran, produced by Hollywood Director Michael Bay, which aired during last year’s Superbowl.
DEVELOPING STORY...I'LL CONTINUE TO REPORT ON THE GROWING CONCERNS.