"The First Family is very active in water sports," reads the typo-riddled purchase memo from the service. "Several family members along with their guest participate in open water activities for which USSS Special Agent Rescue Swimmers are responsible.”
The memo claims that agents rented Jet Skis using “personal funds” in the past.
SECRET SERVICE JET SKIS- US Secret Service is ordering jet skis for its agents. In part, because of Mar-a-Lago and the Trump family's affinity for "water sports" pic.twitter.com/km2RdSI9az
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) September 16, 2019
The Secret Service’s James J. Rowley Training Center in Maryland will house the Jet Skis when they are not in use.
NBC Washington reported that the Kawasaki vehicles that meet the agency’s “4-stroke, 4-cylinder 1498cc,” 900-lb payload requirements begin at around $10,000.
This is not the first major expenditure taxpayers have funded for the first family’s protection. Since Trump took office, the US Secret Service has racked up nearly $500,000 in golf cart rentals, according to an investigation by Quartz. Similar to the agency’s high requirements for Jet Skis, golf carts used by Secret Service agents have to be supercharged and able to travel up to 19 mph (5 mph faster than the average cart).
"The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law,'' then-Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles told USA Today back in August 2017, explaining that his department was being spread thin with the amount of Trump-related protectees. "I don't see this changing in the near term.”
Alles was removed from the Trump administration in April, shortly following the departure of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson.
