Vice President JD Vance’s Secret Service detail has grown so exasperated with his family’s last-minute travel demands that agents began circulating custom coins, stickers, and badges mocking the vice president, according to a report published on July 16. The mementos lean on Vance’s Secret Service code name, “Bobcat,” and carry slogans such as “Bobcat OTR Survivors Club” and “Advance. OTR. Repeat,” reflecting declining spirits among protective personnel as agents face repeated sudden itinerary changes.
The items ridicule the frantic readjustments agents say they face when the vice president and his relatives schedule impromptu, unannounced trips — termed “off the record” (OTR) movements internally — forcing the detail to scrap existing blueprints and create improvised protection plans. The revelations, detailed by Washington Post investigative reporter Carol Leonnig, paint a picture of a security team stretched thin by requests some current and former officials describe as inappropriate or without precedent.
A Helicopter for a Golf Lesson
Among the grievances was a proposal to transport Vance and his child via Marine Two — the Marine Corps helicopter designated for vice presidential use — to Joint Base Andrews for the youngster’s golf instruction. The trip was scrapped at the last minute because of severe thunderstorms and high winds in and around Washington, according to people familiar with the flight plans.
Taxpayers pay between $16,000 and $24,600 for each hour the aircraft flies, according to 2022 Defense Department budget figures, and its use would have required authorization from the White House Military Office, which reports to President Donald Trump. While there is no formal Secret Service policy barring the use of a government helicopter to shuttle a vice president’s child to a local event, former and current supervisors said the request had no precedent. Leonnig reported that previous vice presidents avoided using expensive government resources for their children’s convenience, with agents typically driving kids around locally in sport-utility vehicles, and that the request had no precedent.
The reaction among agents was blunt. “That is RIDICULOUS,” one person familiar with the planned trip said in a message, adding that former Vice Presidents Mike Pence and Kamala Harris “never pulled anything like that.”
A Growing Family and a Frustrated Detail
Some of the strain traces back to the unusual makeup of the vice president’s household. The Vances have children who are nine, six, and four years old, with a fourth baby due this month. No family with such young children has resided at the Naval Observatory since Al Gore served as vice president over a quarter-century ago, in the 1990s.
The couple has taken multiple impromptu helicopter flights to Middleburg, Virginia, to search for a larger home for their growing family. Those unplanned journeys, agents said, repeatedly force them to cancel days off, rush to new locations, and draft fresh security plans on the fly — a cycle that has fueled a building morale problem within the team.
Former officials said previous vice presidents and other protected administration figures traditionally alerted the Secret Service to family travel days in advance and generally gave several hours’ notice before making changes. That expectation, agents say, has evaporated. “The detail is tired of them not giving notice on things and making everything an OTR,” one source said, adding that Vance “thinks he can still move around like a U.S. senator.”
The ‘Royal Treatment’ Complaint
Reporter Carol Leonnig, who detailed the findings on air, said her sources described a team feeling squeezed by the family’s demands, with some agents invoking the phrase “royal treatment” to characterize the expectations placed on them. Agents, she said, were “not used to providing royal treatment to the children of a vice president.”
The homemade coins and stickers underscore just how deep the frustration runs. Each features an illustration of a bobcat’s head alongside the “Bobcat OTR Survivors Club” slogan and the motto “Advance. OTR. Repeat.” — a nod to the futility agents feel preparing elaborate advance work only to see plans tossed aside. Vance earned the “Bobcat” code name because the animal serves as the mascot both of Ohio University, where he attended college, and of his former high school in Jackson, Kentucky.
Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn defended the agency’s rank and file in a statement, emphasizing that agents who join protective details understand the demands of long hours, frequent travel, and constant flexibility, with nights, weekends, and holidays part of the job. He said the workforce strives to keep protectees safe while preserving normalcy where possible.
The vice president’s office struck a diplomatic note in its statement, saying the Vances are grateful to the men and women of the Secret Service and acknowledging that protecting a vice president with a wide policy portfolio and a young, growing family presents a unique challenge — one it said agents meet with excellence every day.
