Today in "This Is Not Normal"

I've got a new piece at Shareblue about Donald Trump's insistence on keeping his private "security and intelligence" detail, despite warnings from seasoned Secret Security personnel:

By virtue of the fact that "federal law prohibits anyone other than law enforcement officers from bringing firearms into federal buildings," it is unlikely that [Keith] Schiller could be anything more than a glorified body man for Trump, which raises the question why his continued presence would be necessary.

A Trump transition team official told Politico, however, that "to describe him as a body guy would be very, very beneath the role that he actually plays," which is "kind of a consigliere… He has the confidence of Trump and of the family."

...The Secret Service detail will be there in a protective role, not an aggressive one. Trump's "consigliere" Schiller is not bound by such well-defined service. He can be body man, aggressor, spy, and enforcer. And the president-elect is seemingly prioritizing his need to identify dissenters and quash protests even over the safety of the Secret Service members assigned to protect him.

Further, Schiller's "ability to essentially control access to Trump" extends even to Secret Service agents, and has "already complicated the Secret Service's rigid protection protocols, say allies of the agency and independent security experts."

The reason we implement such intense protection of the president is not only because it is ethically responsible to provide security to someone who assumes enormous personal risk to serve their country, but also because the president getting harmed creates a major crisis.

There is more at the link, including some of the "services" Trump's private team has provided, including cracking down on protesters at his ongoing rallies.

This is not normal. And I know I keep saying that, and I'm going to keep saying it every day, because I fervently resist the normalization of any of this shit.