DOGE cancels Philly apartment lease for Secret Service agents guarding Biden’s daughter
The Secret Service rented an apartment for workers protecting Ashley Biden, whose protection was extended through July.
The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency sparked disagreement with the U.S. Secret Service after DOGE said it canceled a lease for a Philadelphia apartment that the agency used to provide protection for Ashley Biden.
DOGE’s website reports it has ended the rental agreement for a 1,000-square-foot apartment leased by the law enforcement agency, one of more than 700 agreements DOGE claims it has terminated as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to cut the size of the federal government.
Public records link that lease to an apartment building near the home of former President Joe Biden’s 43-year-old daughter.
But the Secret Service said Monday that it was not aware of any changes to the Philadelphia lease. It said the lodging remains essential for the agency’s around-the-clock protection for the former first daughter, which extends through July.
Ashley Biden retains a protective detail as part of an executive memorandum issued by her father before he left office, according to a Secret Service official familiar with the matter.
“This Secret Service work site is essential to our operations and necessary to effectuate our protective functions,” agency spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said Monday. He told a reporter that questions should be referred to DOGE.
The DOGE database included at least a half dozen other canceled Secret Service leases, including three in Delaware, where other members of the Biden family live. Guglielmi said two of those leases were actually ended in November as Biden wound down his term.
An email seeking comment that was sent to three DOGE representatives and to a government email associated with Musk did not get any responses. The General Services Administration, an independent federal agency that manages U.S. government real estate holdings and leases, said it had no role in ending the Secret Service leases.
“None of the leases cited were flagged by GSA for termination,” GSA spokesperson Will Powell said. “Both the Philadelphia and Wilmington leases are intact until the end of their term.”
The Philadelphia apartment lease extends through July along with Ashley Biden’s protective status, Guglielmi said. A representative for the Biden family declined to comment.
The lease costs taxpayers $3,029 a month, part of nearly a half-billion dollars’ worth of rental agreements that DOGE claims to have canceled in recent weeks.
The conflict with the Secret Service marks yet another confusing incident for the nascent agency led by the world’s richest man. DOGE faces mounting pressure over its hack-and-slash approach to budget trimming, especially as cuts to government services begin to affect Republican strongholds across the country.
DOGE’s effort to end the Secret Service lease also comes as President Donald Trump flexes the powers of his office. Hours after taking office in January, Trump revoked Secret Service protection for John Bolton, his onetime national security adviser-turned-public critic. Bolton had been granted the detail due to threats to his life from Iran, the New York Times reported.
Former U.S. presidents and their spouses retain lifelong protection from the Secret Service. But their children, once past age 16, are not guaranteed protection by the elite security force.
Extending that protective coverage is not unprecedented. Before Trump left the Oval Office in January 2021, he ordered a six-month extension for his four adult children as well as three of his top cabinet officials, the Washington Post reported at the time.
A spokesperson for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Secret Service details for the Biden children.
The Secret Service often declines to publicly confirm reports or provide information about its protective operations. But Guglielmi said that, in principle, the agency had no issue with DOGE publishing the lease information.
“Disclosing the address of a Secret Service work site does not necessarily compromise security for a protectee,” he said. He noted that local property and tax records of many Secret Service protectees are often a matter of public record.
“We are very cognizant of these possibilities and take all of it into consideration when developing our protective posture,” he added.
The White House last week referred questions about DOGE cuts to the Musk-run agency itself. But the DOGE website does not list any contact info, save for a page trying to attract potential new hires.