During Donald Trump’s first term, there were some controversies surrounding members of his team and their sizable security details. Scott Pruitt, for example, who led the president’s Environmental Protection Agency, spent so much on an around-the-clock security detail that it became the subject of three inspector general investigations.
In the president’s second term, there have been related questions surrounding the security teams for, among others, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House budget director Russell Vought and border czar Tom Homan. (Relatedly, FBI Director Kash Patel reportedly sought a private security detail for reasons that still aren’t altogether clear. His former deputy director, conservative media personality Dan Bongino, also benefited from a bodyguard team with multiple agents.)
Evidently, that list is still growing. The Wall Street Journal reported:
The Department of Health and Human Services informed congressional appropriators earlier this year that it was moving about $12 million from its Office of Minority Health to help cover the ballooning cost of security for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to people familiar with the matter and a document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The cost of security for Kennedy, a high-profile figure in the Trump administration whose father and uncle were assassinated in the 1960s, grew from roughly $10 million in fiscal year 2025 to $17 million in fiscal year 2026, some of the people familiar with the matter said.
For those unfamiliar with the Office of Minority Health, it was created decades ago to address systemic health disparities in the Black community, funding research that touched on everything from life expectancy to infant mortality.
With RFK Jr. at the helm, the department has already scrapped a series of grants from the office, citing, among other things, “limited” funds.
That said, if the Journal’s reporting is correct, one of the reasons that the Office of Minority Health has “limited” funds is because the secretary has been using its budget to help pay for his security detail.
An HHS spokesperson told the Journal that the grant cuts “reflect HHS priorities and programmatic assessments — not the Secretary’s security needs.”
Perhaps, though that sounded more like a confirmation of the overall story than a denial.
The spokesperson’s statement added, “Secretary Kennedy faces a security environment that differs significantly from that of previous HHS secretaries. His protection reflects the threats he faces, his extensive travel, and the security required for him to safely carry out his duties nationwide.”
That extensive travel includes RFK Jr. making unprecedented appearances with vulnerable Republican incumbents in key congressional districts nationwide, which are wholly unrelated to his ostensible work as a Cabinet secretary.
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