© Getty Images

Bonding -

President Ronald Reagan loved to ride horses, an activity that Secret Service Agent John Barletta shared with his boss. According to Steven F. Hayward’s biography ‘The Age of Reagan,’ Barletta spent hours with Reagan, riding horses and talking.

© Getty Images

Presidential hobbies can be a pain -

Bill Clinton was a regular jogger when he became president in 1992, which was difficult since the Secret Service had to jog alongside him, while also carrying guns and radios and keeping a watchful eye.

© Getty Images

Presidential hobbies can be a pain -

Dan Emmett wrote in his book, ‘Within Arm's Length: A Secret Service Agent's Definitive Inside Account of Protecting the President,’ that taking a president into public was a nightmare, and they tried to convince Clinton to run on a track or military base, but he insisted on being seen, so they put agents along designated routes.

© Getty Images

Code names -

The Secret Service originally used code names for important figures and places for security reasons, choosing unambiguous words that can be pronounced and understood clearly over radio, but now the practice is more for tradition. Donald Trump's code name is Mogul.

© Getty Images

It can be tense -

President Lyndon Johnson was considered "uncouth" by many and was infamously hotheaded with his agents, whom he would reportedly fire for not obeying his every order.

© Getty Images

It can also be awkward -

Johnson also reportedly had various affairs, and an agent alleged in Ronald Kessler’s book, ‘In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes...,’ that when Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird, caught him having sex with one of his secretaries in the Oval Office, he lashed out at his agents for not warning him she was on her way. He then had an alarm system installed to prevent it from happening again.

© Getty Images

You see some strange stuff -

Former Secret Service agents of Richard Nixon have called him the "strangest" president, thanks in part to his depression and paranoia, which he treated with booze. Nixon allegedly did some odd things, including eating dog biscuits and wearing a full suit and dress shoes on the beach.

© Getty Images

You see some strange stuff -

Agents also reported that one night Nixon's close friend Bebe Rebozo, a wild Cuban-American businessman, arrived at Nixon’s house at 2 am with a “present” for Nixon in his trunk, which turned out to be a young, naked woman with a bottle of Champagne. Naturally the Secret Service wouldn’t let them in.

© Getty Images

Going to Russia with a president is easier than the US -

When Bill Clinton visited Russia in 1993, Secret Service agents worried about protecting the somewhat reckless president as he worked crowds. But, according to Dan Emmett, people in Russia moved out of Clinton's way instead of surging at him, taking orders and not questioning authority, unlike Americans.

© Getty Images

Overseas travel takes a lot of prep -

Former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras, author of 'Becoming Bulletproof,' recounted, "Once I went to Africa, Former First lady Michelle Obama was going to go to Tanzania and I went a month out in advance just to prepare for her trip."

© Getty Images

You have to see everything -

Poumpouras added that you have to consider outings from every angle: snipers, counter assault teams, what’s above you in the sky, what’s below you underground, planning, blueprints, choreography, and more.

© Getty Images

You also work as a babysitter -

Ronald Kessler wrote that Amy Carter, who was only nine when her father became president, was quite difficult. She would purposely throw crumbs on the floor for agents to clean up, and she often wanted to go to her friend’s house after school when she was meant to go home. If the Secret Service refused, she would call her father who would then tell the agents to take her wherever she wanted.

© Getty Images

A babysitter to adults, too -

Jimmy Carter’s son, James "Chip" Carter III, was allegedly even more difficult. He was recently separated, drinking often, and picking up women to bring back to the White House during his father's presidency.

© Getty Images

Teenagers can be tough - President Johnson’s daughter Luci, and her then-boyfriend Patrick Nugent, gave their agents a panic when they managed to escape one night during a party, leaving through the back door for a night on the town, the LA Times reports.

© Getty Images

Presidents might try to escape you, too -

Teddy Roosevelt allegedly hid from his agents, and Woodrow Wilson is said to have actively tried to lose his agents when he was in a crowd.

© Getty Images

There's power in the role too - Edmund W. Starling guarded five presidents and wrote that Theodore Roosevelt was the most difficult. The president once disobeyed Starling’s orders and went up a steep mountain on a bad road where his car stalled. Starling lectured him after he was back in safety, threatening to quit if he disobeyed orders again, and Roosevelt, the most powerful person in the world, apologized and promised to obey him.

© Getty Images

Don’t expect a “please” or “thank-you” -

According to author and former Secret Service agent Dennis McCarthy, President Johnson treated the Secret Service like "hired hands.” At his Texas ranch one rainy night, the president put his dog out and shouted to the agents to bring him in when he’s finished, which they only found joy in because the dog was very muddy and made a mess of Johnson's bed.

© Getty Images

Romance plots have thickened -

Agent Chuck Vance fell in love with Gerald Ford’s daughter, Susan, while he was on detail. They started a secret relationship in 1977, and Vance was transferred once Betty Ford discovered it and disapproved due to Vance being a divorced father. The couple married, however, in 1979, and soon after Vance left the Secret Service to start his own security firm.

© Getty Images

You must blend into the background - Since the Secret Service must always be present but invisible, presidents often build an unspoken trust with them, showing them their most vulnerable moments. Such was the case reported by former agent Dennis McCarthy, who said Nixon broke down crying in the same room as him when the Watergate scandal began.

© Getty Images

There’s only so much you can do - President John F. Kennedy was considered particularly reckless by his agents, and fatally so. Kessler wrote that Kennedy insisted on riding in an open convertible unless it was raining, including on that fateful day in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

© Getty Images

Some presidents are more difficult without even trying -

Kessler’s book revealed that during Barack Obama's term, the threats on the life of the president increased by 400% compared to his predecessor.

© Getty Images

The press isn’t a fan of agents - The Secret Service’s first order is to protect, even when that means keeping the public and the press away. Agents that protected Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign in 1976 often clashed with Carter's press secretary, Jody Powell, for not allowing the media to get quality pictures of him.

© Getty Images

You have to be a good sport -

Agents had to watch awkwardly as Nixon tried to play golf, because according to Ronald Kessler's book ‘The First Family Detail,’ one agent said, "When you saw him play golf, you were embarrassed for him. I mean it was awful."

© Getty Images

Golf is popular, and problematic -

Former agent Dan Emmett explained that it’s difficult when presidents play golf, especially on public courses, as George H. W. Bush insisted, because of all the open space and other people playing simultaneously.

© Getty Images

In pandemic times - Secret Service policy is that agents are required to wear masks, ABC News reports, but agents on former president Donald Trump's detail had constantly been seen without them, apparently in deference to a president who routinely ridiculed mask-wearers. The Secret Service refused to comment.

© Getty Images

Agents’ safety at risk due to political divide over coronavirus -

Former Secret Service Assistant Deputy Direct Lynda R. Williams told ABC News that mask-wearing might come down to the “aesthetics of the White House” as a safe place, meaning image was chosen over agents’ health.

© Getty Images

Agents’ safety at risk due to political divide over coronavirus - Joseph Petro, a former Secret Service agent, wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post about Trump's car ride with Secret Service agents following his Covid-19 diagnosis, which he said needlessly exposed the agents and their families to a potential danger.

© Getty Images

In a time of social unrest -

Former agent Evy Poumpouras said that the agents were inevitably having tougher discussions regarding safety as Trump travels during this time of civil unrest, particularly since “it's not just what happens to him, it's what symbolically it means if something happens to him.”

© Getty Images

In pandemic times -

Agents on Biden's detail were commonly seen wearing masks, and had been since Biden received his detail in mid-March 2020. This made sense as Biden was a consistent supporter of masks.

See also: The US government's contingency plans

© Getty Images