> Presidents do not need protection from the people, the people need protection from presidents.
I know this sounds good but is it true? I've never needed protection from the president but presidents are occasionally shot at and sometimes killed. Presidents need the secret service because they do, in fact, need protection from the people.
Of course presidents need more physical protection. The "protection" being referred to is protection from the government and legal system.
If there were a pattern of presidents being unjustly punished for their actions, for political gain or retribution, then something like this might make sense. There is not yet a pattern, and I think that to strengthen the power of the president in such an undefined and potentially very broad way, should be done with great caution and only when it is clear that the ability of the government to use the legal system against former presidents is being systemically abused. I don't think that is at all clear, there just isn't enough data yet.
If they wanted to protect Trump from some of the current prosecution against him, they could have done so much more narrowly.
I know this sounds good but is it true? I've never needed protection from the president but presidents are occasionally shot at and sometimes killed. Presidents need the secret service because they do, in fact, need protection from the people.