Hello, I'm Gavin Esler. Welcome to the bunker. You could say it's a top secret bunker,

because after the various attempts on President Donald Trump's life, there's a lot of talk about

the United States Secret Service. But what are they and who are they exactly?

What is it they do beyond the almost proverbial willingness to take a bullet for the President?

I spent more than a decade at events controlled in various ways by the Secret Service in or around the White House,

and more significantly when the President of the day was on the move across the United States,

campaigning or meeting members of the public.

We're going to hear from a former U.S. Secret Service agent to explain the organization's history,

the challenges of keeping the president of the United States safe,

and why yet another attempt on President Trump's life might demand a rethink about what they do.

Mike DeGus was a special agent for the United States Secret Service from 2008 to 2020,

and I'm delighted to welcome him to the bunker. Hello, Mike.

Hello, thanks, Gavin. Let's begin with who you are, who the Secret Service is.

They're not an intelligence agency. Can we begin a little bit

about their history? Because I think they were set up in the 1860s after the Civil War as an

attempt to stamp out counterfeit money. Yeah, no, that's correct, Kevin. Actually, it's a fascinating

history for anybody that really wants to dive into it. And most people don't realize that it was

actually signed into the law by President Lincoln

the morning of the night he was assassinated, ironically.

So in 1865 in the morning, with approximately two-thirds to 75% of the currency in circulation

during the Civil War being projected to be counterfeit, they recognized a massive need.

And yeah, that morning, they signed into existence the Secret Service to suppress the counterfeit

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