At least 8 Secret Service agents stuck in Phoenix with coronavirus after

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Last month, up to 15 agents who tested positive for the virus loaded into cars and drove themselves home, avoiding flights after becoming infected while preparing for President Donald Trump’s campaign rally, according to another source familiar with the situation.

And in South Dakota, agents have been on the ground for days preparing for Trump’s visit to Mount Rushmore — but also for what some view as the inevitability that one or many of them will contract the virus.

On Thursday morning, a group of approximately 20 agents conducted a walk-through of the event clustered close together, surveying seating at the top of the Mount Rushmore amphitheater, the press area and the stage where the President will speak. Just two wore a mask; a separate group of a half-dozen uniformed officers assembling magnetometers at the park’s entrance did not wear masks. But every agent screening attendees at the entrance was masked hours later.

As Trump and Pence resume regular travel schedules after months of pandemic-induced lockdown, the risks posed to the large contingent of US Secret Service personnel who accompany them have become obvious as roughly two dozen agents — if not more — have tested positive for the virus, sources familiar with the situation said.

The health peril has emerged as a sore point for many within the agency, where sources describe a heightened sense of anxiety and anger over being put at what some view as senseless risk. One agency source said there is “growing anger and frustration” among some in the Secret Service at what they consider to be “unnecessary trips and exposure” because of Trump and Pence’s travel.

Multiple Trump campaign staffers quarantining after Tulsa rally

“Even ardent Trump supporters are fed up,” one agency source said. “We signed up to take a bullet for him, we did not sign up to get sick for him for no good reason.”

In addition to the agents who have become ill, many more have been required to quarantine after coming into contact with others who tested positive, putting a strain on the agency’s numbers as Trump and Pence continue to schedule trips around the country. Each trip requires multiple teams of agents, who work in shifts to ensure proper rest.

White House spokesman Judd Deere said the President “takes the health and safety of everyone traveling in support of himself and all White House operations very seriously.”

“When preparing for and carrying out any travel, White House Operations collaborates with the Physician to the President and the White House Military Office, to ensure plans incorporate current CDC guidance and best practices for limiting COVID-19 exposure to the greatest extent possible,” he said in a statement.

Inside the agency, some have wondered just how essential the trips taken by Trump and Pence have been, particularly the campaign events sources have previously described to CNN as meant partly to improve the President’s mood.

Pence’s recent travel has all…