US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is withdrawing Hunter Biden’s government bodyguards, extending his campaign of political retribution to Joe Biden’s son.

Trump announced the same measure against Ashley Biden, the former president’s daughter with former first lady Jill.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump asserted that Hunter Biden’s security detail is composed of as many as 18 people, calling it “ridiculous.”

He said Hunter Biden was currently on vacation in South Africa and noted he had recently suspended US aid to the country over alleged rights violations.

“Please be advised that, effective immediately, Hunter Biden will no longer receive Secret Service protection. Likewise, Ashley Biden who has 13 agents will be taken off the list,” Trump wrote.

Federal law grants Secret Service protection to former presidents and their spouses, but only to their children if they are under age 16.

Nonetheless, protection is often extended for a period of time to adult children.

A Secret Service spokesperson, when queried about Trump’s action, told AFP: “We are aware of the President’s decision to terminate protection for Hunter and Ashley Biden.”

“The Secret Service will comply and is actively working with the protective details and the White House to ensure compliance as soon as possible.”

Hunter Biden has been a target of Republican ire for years, with the animosity intensifying after his father pardoned his gun and tax crime convictions shortly before leaving office in January.

On Monday, Trump declared that the pardon and others issued by Biden were void, an unprecedented move with unclear legal founding.

Trump’s revocation of the security details is his latest act of apparent or explicit retribution against perceived enemies since returning to office in January.

His administration previously revoked the security clearances of former president Biden and dozens of ex-officials, as well as all employees at several law firms associated with his Democratic opponents.

Trump has also revoked security details from former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, former national security advisor John Bolton and Anthony Fauci, who led the country’s fight against Covid-19.

The White House has justified these decisions saying that people are not entitled to security protection and clearances for life.

“The individuals you’re mentioning are quite wealthy, I understand, so they can get their own private security if they wish,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in January.

After his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump issued an order giving a six-month extension of Secret Service protection to all four of his adult children and three senior administration officials.

The measure cost taxpayers $1.7 million, The Washington Post has reported, quoting an analysis of spending records.

SOURCE: AFP AND AGENCIES

Trump revokes legal status for 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans

By Ted Hesson Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump‘s administration will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States, according to a Federal Register notice on Friday, the latest expansion of his crackdown on immigration.

The move, effective April 24, cuts short a two-year “parole” granted to the migrants under former President Joe Biden that allowed them to enter the country by air if they had U.S. sponsors.

Trump, a Republican, took steps to ramp up immigration enforcement after taking office, including a push to deport record numbers of migrants in the U.S. illegally. He has argued that the legal entry parole programs launched under his Democratic predecessor overstepped the boundaries of federal law and called for their termination in a January 20 executive order.

Trump said on March 6 that he would decide “very soon” whether to strip the parole status from some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled to the U.S. during the conflict with Russia. Trump’s remarks came in response to a Reuters report that said his administration planned to revoke the status for Ukrainians as soon as April.

Biden launched a parole entry program for Venezuelans in 2022 and expanded it to Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans in 2023 as his administration grappled with high levels of illegal immigration from those nationalities. Diplomatic and political relations between the four countries and the United States have been strained.

The new legal pathways came as Biden tried to clamp down on illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Trump administration’s decision to strip the legal status from half a million migrants could make many vulnerable to deportation if they choose to remain in the U.S. It remains unclear how many who entered the U.S. on parole now have another form of protection or legal status.

In a notice set to formally publish in the Federal Register on Monday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said revoking the parole status would make it easier to place the migrants in a fast-track deportation process known as “expedited removal.”

Under a Trump-era policy implemented in January, expedited removal can be applied to certain migrants in the U.S. for two years or less.