Hunter Biden says President Trump stripped him of Secret Service protection the day after conservative activist Laura Loomer identified his whereabouts in South Africa on social media, a sequence of events that raises fresh questions about how taxpayer-funded security details for former presidents' adult children should work, and who should decide when they end.
Biden made the claim during a July 7 appearance on the podcast "Friends Keep Secrets," hosted by producer Benny Blanco alongside rapper Lil Dicky and Kristin Batalucco. The Hill reported Biden's account of the timeline: Loomer posted a photo on X showing him, his wife Melissa Biden, and his son in Cape Town, accused him of living on the taxpayer dime, and the next day the protection vanished.
Biden told the podcast hosts:
"And we were there for a day and Laura Loomer put out on her X [social platform] picture of me and my son and Melissa in Cape Town and said, 'This is ridiculous, this criminal still has Secret Service and they're on vacation and we're paying for it,' and the next day, the president canceled the Secret Service, which is fine."
When Blanco asked whether Biden was the first person to have his Secret Service protection canceled, Biden replied simply: "I think so."
Biden said the family traveled to South Africa because the Palisades fire, which burned through the Los Angeles area in early 2025, had made it impossible for them to return to their Malibu home. On March 13, Loomer posted on X that Biden was in South Africa and accused him of having "fled the country" after telling a judge he could not pay his legal fees.
In a comment on that same post, Loomer wrote: "I can also confirm that Hunter Biden has Secret Service detail with him right now on the ground in South Africa."
The following week, Trump pulled the Secret Service details for both Hunter Biden and his sister Ashley Biden. There is a minor discrepancy between Biden's own account, he says the detail was canceled "the next day", and reporting that the formal action came "the following week" after Loomer's March 13 post. Either way, the timeline is tight enough that Biden himself draws a direct line from Loomer's post to the president's decision.
Hunter Biden's legal and financial troubles have trailed him for years. He was previously convicted of three gun felonies and pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges before his father, then-President Joe Biden, issued a sweeping pardon in December 2024.
The scale of Hunter Biden's protection detail added fuel to the controversy. President Trump announced on Truth Social that the detail was being revoked, pointing to the cost borne by American taxpayers.
National Review reported that Hunter Biden's detail consisted of as many as 18 agents, while Ashley Biden had 13 assigned to hers. Trump wrote on Truth Social: "Hunter Biden has had Secret Service protection for an extended period of time, all paid for by the United States Taxpayer. There are as many as 18 people on this Detail, which is ridiculous!"
Former President Joe Biden had extended Secret Service protection for his adult children through July before leaving office in January, AP News reported. The Secret Service confirmed it would comply with Trump's decision. "We are aware of the President's decision to terminate protection for Hunter and Ashley Biden," the agency said in a statement. "The Secret Service will comply and is actively working with the protective details and the White House to ensure compliance as soon as possible."
Trump himself told reporters: "Well, we have done that with many. I would say if there are 18 with Hunter Biden, that will be something I'll look at this afternoon."
And look at it he did. The protection ended immediately.
Loomer wasted no time claiming credit. After Biden's podcast remarks surfaced, she shared a video clip of them on X, captioning it with a single word: "LOOMERED."
In a separate post, she went further: "How is me getting Hunter Biden's Secret Service protection removed a bad thing when it was paid for by taxpayers?... It was a total scam of the American people and I stopped it. Honestly, I deserve a medal. But all I get is s*** talk."
Whether Loomer's post was the decisive factor or merely the final nudge in a decision the White House was already weighing is unclear. What is clear is that both Biden and Loomer agree on the basic chain of events: she posted, and the protection disappeared.
Hunter Biden is hardly the only former official to lose a protective detail under this administration. Trump has also revoked Secret Service protection for former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former national security adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and former Iran envoy Brian Hook. Just The News noted that the removals reflect a broader pattern of trimming taxpayer-funded security for individuals the current administration views as no longer warranting it.
Fox News reported that Biden was later photographed in Cape Town driving a rented Toyota sedan, a far cry from the armored SUVs that come standard with a Secret Service detail. He was with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and their son, identified in that report as Beau Biden Jr.
Biden noted on the podcast that his parents will have Secret Service protection "forever," a reference to the lifetime coverage afforded to former presidents and their spouses. Adult children of former presidents are a different matter. The protection Biden enjoyed was an extension his father arranged before leaving office, not a permanent entitlement.
That distinction matters. Biden's framing of the revocation as something Trump did to him personally obscures the more basic question: why was a convicted felon, pardoned by his own father, still drawing an 18-agent protective detail while vacationing overseas on the taxpayer's tab?
Biden has remained in the public eye since his pardon, building a social media following and sitting for friendly interviews. He recently collected $1.7 million in a defamation case, a notable windfall for someone who told a judge he could not afford his legal fees.
The Hill reached out to the Secret Service for comment on Biden's claims. No response was reported as of publication.
Biden's account, taken at face value, is that a social media post by a private citizen prompted the president to revoke his protection in roughly 24 hours. He offered the detail with a shrug, "which is fine", as though 18 agents guarding him on a South African vacation were a minor perk, easily discarded.
But the ease with which Biden dismissed the arrangement only underscores how casually the arrangement was made in the first place. His father extended the coverage. His father pardoned his crimes. His father's administration shielded him for years. And when the new president decided the taxpayers had spent enough, Biden went on a podcast and treated it like a cocktail-party anecdote.
Loomer may be brash, and her victory lap may grate. But the underlying facts she highlighted, a pardoned felon, 18 agents deep, vacationing in Cape Town on the public dime, are not in dispute. Biden confirmed them himself.
Taxpayers don't owe a permanent security entourage to every adult child of every former president. They especially don't owe one to a man whose father had to pardon him on the way out the door.
