Whenever a president or vice president takes a family getaway, there's a lot that goes into it to ensure that, worst-case scenario, emergency responders and Secret Service agents can take appropriate and swift life-saving measures.
Some of the measures taken to ensure the safety of those who lead our country may seem extreme, but at the end of the day, they are completely necessary in the name of safety and awareness.
According to the Associated Press, Vice President J.D. Vance's security detail made headlines this week after it was reported that they ordered the water levels of the Ohio River raised so that the president could kayak with his family.
The water levels were raised to ensure that water-based rescue craft would be able to access the vice president if the unthinkable happened to him or his family.
The raised river levels, according to the Secret Service, were necessary to ensure emergency personnel "could operate safely" in case something happened to VP Vance or his family.
Not surprisingly, critics of Vance and the Trump administration were not happy with the Army Corps of Engineers accomodating the request to raise the river for the vice president's vacation.
"As I said here, it's outrageous for the Army corps of engineers to spend taxpayer money to increase water flow in a river so
@VP can go canoeing when budget cuts to the National Park Service have severely impacted family vacations for everyone else, wrote Richard Painter, the former chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush.
The AP noted:
The Corps of Engineers declined to address any financial impact of raising the river. Spokesman Gene Pawlik said the agency’s Louisville District temporarily increased outflows from the Caesar Creek Lake in southwest Ohio into the Little Miami “to support safe navigation of U.S. Secret Service personnel.” He said the move met operational criteria and fell within normal practice.
"It was determined that the operations would not adversely affect downstream or upstream water levels,” Pawlik said in a statement.
He added, "Downstream stakeholders were notified in advance of the slight outflow increase, which occurred August 1, 2025."
The vice president wasn't even aware of the measures taken to raise the river levels.
"The Secret Service often employs protective measures without the knowledge of the Vice President or his staff, as was the case last weekend," Vance spokesperson Taylor Van Kirk said in a statement.
The same people complaining about it would have undoubtedly been fine with the idea had it been Kamala Harris or any other Democratic vice president.
All presidents and vice presidents are heavily accommodated in the name of safety -- it doesn't matter which political party they belong to.
