Breaking news:Hegseth’s expansive security requirements tax Army protective unit

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unusually large personal security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C., according to numerous officials familiar with the operation.

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Hegseth’s expansive security requirements tax Army protective unit
The agency tasked with protecting Defense Department leaders is under significant strain, and the secretary’s atypical needs are becoming untenable, officials say.

August 20, 2025 at 5:00 a.m. EDTToday at 5:00 a.m. EDT
12 min

2,363

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer, visit the Wharf, a popular waterfront shopping district in D.C., last week. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
By Tara Copp, Alex Horton and Dan Lamothe
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unusually large personal security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C., according to numerous officials familiar with the operation.

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The sprawling, multimillion-dollar initiative has forced the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, the agency that fields security for top Defense Department officials, to staff weeks-long assignments in each location and at times monitor residences belonging to the Hegseths’ former spouses, the officials said.

One CID official, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity citing a fear of reprisal, characterized Hegseth’s personal protective arrangement as unlike any other in the agency’s recent history.

“I’ve never seen this many security teams for one guy,” the official said. “Nobody has.”

This account is based on more than a dozen interviews — including with CID staff, current and former defense officials, and others familiar with Hegseth’s activities — and a review of documents revealing the Trump administration’s apparent unwillingness to meet the Army’s request for additional funding and personnel for the mission. The Washington Post withheld several sensitive details gathered in the course of reporting this article, including the size of Hegseth’s protective details and the precise locations where they are assigned.

Army CID has faced significant staffing and budgetary shortfalls for years, but new demands since Hegseth’s arrival in January have put added pressure on the agency, officials said.

“We have complete inability to achieve our most basic missions,” one person said.

The Pentagon declined to address several questions submitted by The Post. A spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a statement that “any action pertaining to the security of Secretary Hegseth and his family has been in response to the threat environment and at the full recommendation of the Army Criminal Investigation Division.”

CID’s chief mission is to investigate serious crimes within the Army. That includes contracting fraud, which the Trump administration has decried as wasteful government spending, sexual assault and other violent crimes such as the recent mass shooting of U.S. soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia.

The agency’s other mandate is to provide security for the defense secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Army secretary, and other current and former top defense officials. CID agents serve as advance teams, coordinating security ahead of public appearances. They also staff motorcades and provide security during travel at home and abroad.

Historically about 150 of the agency’s approximately 1,500 agents serve on VIP security details, according to people familiar with the matter, who said that when Hegseth took office a call went out for many more. Now there are hundreds assigned to personal protective duty, these people said. One person characterized the figure as “400 and going up.” Another said it’s “over 500.”

In a statement, Army CID acknowledged the agency “operates within existing resource constraints” and said it “proactively adjusts its efforts to address emerging threats and maintains a robust security posture in both the investigative and protective realms.” Citing unspecified safety concerns, the agency said, “specific details regarding threat assessments, security protocols, resource allocation, and budgetary matters related to either investigative or protective operations are considered sensitive and cannot be publicly disclosed.”

The demand for additional resources is not only because of Hegseth’s large blended family — including one child with wife Jennifer Hegseth, her three children from a previous marriage plus three children from Hegseth’s second marriage — but also a rise in politically motivated violence as the nation has become more splintered. The U.S. Secret Service, which coordinates personal security for the president, vice president and their families, among others, faced searing criticism after an attempt on Donald Trump’s life during last year’s campaign. A separate incident involving an alleged gunman at Trump’s Florida golf course weeks later was thwarted by Secret Service agents.

Shortly after Hegseth was nominated to become defense secretary, a bomb threat was made against his home in Tennessee, two people told The Post. The incident prompted an increase in security, these people said.

Hegseth, 45, a former National Guard officer and Fox News personality, was among Trump’s most polarizing Cabinet selections, and his tenure thus far has been mired in tumult. The Defense Department inspector general is scrutinizing his handling of highly sensitive national security information, the White House intervened after his office targeted senior Pentagon officials with polygraph tests and top political staff have either fled or been fired amid infighting.

In that time, Hegseth’s security demands have required CID to pull agents off investigations to send them instead for long-term assignments in Tennessee, or Minnesota, where Hegseth’s second wife resides, people familiar with the matter said. The agency also has had to activate military reservists to help fill some staffing gaps, these people said.

One CID official expressed frustration with the situation, saying agents were being taken off investigations — “doing what we are supposed to be doing” — to “sit on luggage” instead or “sit in the cars on the driveway.”

“It is literally taking away from [CID’s] law enforcement mission. … You are taking hundreds of people out of the field to provide this level of protection,” the official said.

Hegseth frequently has his children appear with him, including at this year’s White House Easter Egg Roll and a Pentagon reception for NASCAR driver Ross Chastain. The CID security assignments can entail accompanying the children to school and walking the perimeter of the homes to provide around-the-clock surveillance, said people familiar with the agents’ duties.

CID protection has on occasion extended to Pete Hegseth’s and Jennifer Hegseth’s former spouses to protect the children, two of the officials said. Two other officials called this arrangement unusual. Another said it was something they had never seen before in their many years at the agency.

In its statement, Army CID said Hegseth did not request the additional coverage. The secretary “has never effected CIDs recommended security posture,” the statement says.

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National Security
Foreign Policy
Intelligence
Justice
Military
Exclusive
Hegseth’s expansive security requirements tax Army protective unit
The agency tasked with protecting Defense Department leaders is under significant strain, and the secretary’s atypical needs are becoming untenable, officials say.

August 20, 2025 at 5:00 a.m. EDTToday at 5:00 a.m. EDT
12 min

2,363

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer, visit the Wharf, a popular waterfront shopping district in D.C., last week. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
By Tara Copp, Alex Horton and Dan Lamothe
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unusually large personal security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C., according to numerous officials familiar with the operation.

Subscribe for unlimited access to The Post
You can cancel anytime.
Subscribe
The sprawling, multimillion-dollar initiative has forced the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, the agency that fields security for top Defense Department officials, to staff weeks-long assignments in each location and at times monitor residences belonging to the Hegseths’ former spouses, the officials said.

One CID official, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity citing a fear of reprisal, characterized Hegseth’s personal protective arrangement as unlike any other in the agency’s recent history.

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“I’ve never seen this many security teams for one guy,” the official said. “Nobody has.”

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This account is based on more than a dozen interviews — including with CID staff, current and former defense officials, and others familiar with Hegseth’s activities — and a review of documents revealing the Trump administration’s apparent unwillingness to meet the Army’s request for additional funding and personnel for the mission. The Washington Post withheld several sensitive details gathered in the course of reporting this article, including the size of Hegseth’s protective details and the precise locations where they are assigned.

Army CID has faced significant staffing and budgetary shortfalls for years, but new demands since Hegseth’s arrival in January have put added pressure on the agency, officials said.

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“We have complete inability to achieve our most basic missions,” one person said.

The Pentagon declined to address several questions submitted by The Post. A spokesman, Sean Parnell, said in a statement that “any action pertaining to the security of Secretary Hegseth and his family has been in response to the threat environment and at the full recommendation of the Army Criminal Investigation Division.”

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CID’s chief mission is to investigate serious crimes within the Army. That includes contracting fraud, which the Trump administration has decried as wasteful government spending, sexual assault and other violent crimes such as the recent mass shooting of U.S. soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia.

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The agency’s other mandate is to provide security for the defense secretary, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Army secretary, and other current and former top defense officials. CID agents serve as advance teams, coordinating security ahead of public appearances. They also staff motorcades and provide security during travel at home and abroad.

Historically about 150 of the agency’s approximately 1,500 agents serve on VIP security details, according to people familiar with the matter, who said that when Hegseth took office a call went out for many more. Now there are hundreds assigned to personal protective duty, these people said. One person characterized the figure as “400 and going up.” Another said it’s “over 500.”

In a statement, Army CID acknowledged the agency “operates within existing resource constraints” and said it “proactively adjusts its efforts to address emerging threats and maintains a robust security posture in both the investigative and protective realms.” Citing unspecified safety concerns, the agency said, “specific details regarding threat assessments, security protocols, resource allocation, and budgetary matters related to either investigative or protective operations are considered sensitive and cannot be publicly disclosed.”

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The demand for additional resources is not only because of Hegseth’s large blended family — including one child with wife Jennifer Hegseth, her three children from a previous marriage plus three children from Hegseth’s second marriage — but also a rise in politically motivated violence as the nation has become more splintered. The U.S. Secret Service, which coordinates personal security for the president, vice president and their families, among others, faced searing criticism after an attempt on Donald Trump’s life during last year’s campaign. A separate incident involving an alleged gunman at Trump’s Florida golf course weeks later was thwarted by Secret Service agents.

1:30

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth relies on an abnormally large security force for personal protection. Some officials described it as increasingly untenable. (Video: Tara Copp, Monica Rodman/The Washington Post)
Shortly after Hegseth was nominated to become defense secretary, a bomb threat was made against his home in Tennessee, two people told The Post. The incident prompted an increase in security, these people said.

Hegseth, 45, a former National Guard officer and Fox News personality, was among Trump’s most polarizing Cabinet selections, and his tenure thus far has been mired in tumult. The Defense Department inspector general is scrutinizing his handling of highly sensitive national security information, the White House intervened after his office targeted senior Pentagon officials with polygraph tests and top political staff have either fled or been fired amid infighting.

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In that time, Hegseth’s security demands have required CID to pull agents off investigations to send them instead for long-term assignments in Tennessee, or Minnesota, where Hegseth’s second wife resides, people familiar with the matter said. The agency also has had to activate military reservists to help fill some staffing gaps, these people said.

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One CID official expressed frustration with the situation, saying agents were being taken off investigations — “doing what we are supposed to be doing” — to “sit on luggage” instead or “sit in the cars on the driveway.”

“It is literally taking away from [CID’s] law enforcement mission. … You are taking hundreds of people out of the field to provide this level of protection,” the official said.

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Hegseth frequently has his children appear with him, including at this year’s White House Easter Egg Roll and a Pentagon reception for NASCAR driver Ross Chastain. The CID security assignments can entail accompanying the children to school and walking the perimeter of the homes to provide around-the-clock surveillance, said people familiar with the agents’ duties.

CID protection has on occasion extended to Pete Hegseth’s and Jennifer Hegseth’s former spouses to protect the children, two of the officials said. Two other officials called this arrangement unusual. Another said it was something they had never seen before in their many years at the agency.

In its statement, Army CID said Hegseth did not request the additional coverage. The secretary “has never effected CIDs recommended security posture,” the statement says.

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The government’s protective agencies all have faced greater demands as the country’s political climate has turned so combustible.

The Secret Service protects Trump’s large, geographically dispersed family, including his adult children and grandchildren, and secures his properties in New York, New Jersey and South Florida. Upon leaving office, President Joe Biden ordered temporary extensions for his children’s security details — and for his former homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas — but Trump canceled their protection about two months into his term.

Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristi L. Noem, also has boosted the size of her protective detail and, in an unusual move, taken up residence rent-free at a military base in D.C. Her spokeswoman has said that Noem requires additional security because she regularly receives death threats as a result of the agency’s counterterrorism and counternarcotics mandates.

Even the U.S. Marshals Service, which protects members of the federal judiciary, has assigned security details to judges and their families at levels not seen in decades amid a rise in threats, current and former officials said.

Parnell, the Pentagon spokesman, called it “astonishing” that the news media would examine this issue and, in emphasizing his point, falsely accused The Post of revealing sensitive personal information about Noem, the homeland security secretary. In his statement, Parnell called Hegseth’s security protection “appropriate” and said that when the media scrutinizes “cabinet secretaries’ security protocols and movements, it puts lives at risk.”

CID’s protective service has been under strain since at least 2020, after Trump, during his first term in office, ordered the killing of a prominent Iranian general. Top national security officials at the time faced death threats for years afterward.

Shortly after Trump took office for a second time, the administration stripped security details from several people, including retired Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley and former defense secretary Mark T. Esper. Administration officials said at the time that Milley’s security was taken away as a means to hold him accountable for perceived disloyalty. The president has said he has an abiding disdain for both men — whom he hand-selected for their posts in his last administration — after they criticized him or questioned his fitness for office.

Two CID officials said that training and travel have been canceled to preserve funds, and that staff receive emails from the agency’s leadership seeking 10 to 15 agents to fill last-minute requests “to cover D.C., Tennessee and Minnesota” for anywhere from two weeks to 90 days.

“I see why they’re doing it,” one of the officials said, describing the “no fail” mission of executive protection. “But at the same time, you take an agent out of the field for two weeks to 90 days, those cases aren’t getting reassigned. And if they are, there’s very minimal work getting done on that.”

Security needs for the Hegseths also are high in D.C., even though Hegseth opted to rent government housing within a secure military base.

In late July, for instance, the Hegseths wanted to take their family to a Washington Nationals baseball game but didn’t purchase seats in a private suite, which could have lessened the burden on those assigned to protect them, said two people familiar with the matter.

Typically, the Pentagon can arrange for a complimentary suite if the event is an official appearance and part of Hegseth’s duties as defense secretary. But even though it was “Space Force Day” at the ballpark, Hegseth was not part of the official program and initially did not have a suite, these people said.

Instead, the family purchased seats in a section of the ballpark that did not allow for private access, which required the protective detail to cover a larger and more exposed area, people familiar with the matter said. A video taken by the news site the 812 shows in one frame multiple agents watching after the family. The security team can be seen creating a barrier around the Hegseths as the family leaves their seats and walks through a crowded concourse before exiting into a stairwell.

Ultimately, the Nationals offered Hegseth an empty suite on the recommendation of the team’s security, according to a person familiar with the process. Photos of the event released by the Defense Department show that Hegseth and his family did interact with the troops who were recognized during the game.

It’s unclear whether Hegseth paid for his family to use the suite. His office did not address the question, and the Nationals did not provide comment.

With its staffing and budgetary challenges, CID has, in some instances, had to call in highly trained agents to backfill security for Hegseth and his family, one of the CID officials said. Depending on their tenure in government service, CID salaries typically range from about $50,000 to $135,000 — not including additional pay agents can receive depending on where they live, or overtime pay.

The crush has been building for a few years, since the agency underwent restructuring and brought on a number of former Secret Service personnel who were accustomed to working with greater resources, one CID official said. The officials who coordinate Hegseth’s security approach the assignment “like there is just a bottomless pit of agents and money,” this person said, adding, “I don’t think anybody’s holding them accountable for it.”

The agency’s director, Greg Ford, a career Naval Criminal Investigative Service officer who became head of CID in 2021, is due to depart this month.

In his exit message to CID employees, a copy of which was reviewed by The Post, Ford said he is leaving “for a combination of professional and personal reasons.” He did not elaborate. The message does not mention the security details or staffing levels, and Ford’s office declined an interview request. His office did offer to provide some written responses to questions but had not done so before publication.

In its budget request for the coming year, the agency has sought to hire as many as 250 additional personnel exclusively for executive protection details plus a boost of up to $253 million to help ensure all core investigative responsibilities can be met, according to documents reviewed by The Post.

Those requests are unlikely to be fulfilled, the documents indicate. Of the almost $716 million requested by the agency, the Trump administration is supporting about $463 million, the documents say. Of the almost $45 million sought for executive protection details, about $20 million has the administration’s backing, the documents show. Similar requests made for fiscal 2025, the last year of the Biden administration, also were not fully met.

Lawmakers will consider defense spending legislation in September, when Congress returns from summer recess.