Hunter Biden Says Secret Service Protection Ended After Laura Loomer Highlighted South Africa Trip

Hunter Biden says his U.S. Secret Service protection was revoked shortly after conservative commentator Laura Loomer publicly shared a photograph of him and his family during a trip to South Africa, claiming the sequence of events unfolded within a day.
Biden discussed the episode during a July 7 appearance on the podcast “Friends Keep Secrets,” hosted by producer Benny Blanco, rapper Lil Dicky, and Kristin Batalucco.
During the interview, Biden explained that he and his wife, Melissa Biden, traveled to South Africa in 2025 because they were unable to return to their home in Malibu while the Palisades fire burned through the Los Angeles area.
According to Biden, the family had only been in Cape Town for a day when Loomer posted a photograph of them on the social media platform X.
“And we were there for a day, and Laura Loomer put out on her X a picture of me and my son and Melissa in Cape Town and said, ‘This is ridiculous, this criminal still has Secret Service and they’re on vacation and we’re paying for it,’” Biden recalled during the podcast.
He then claimed that his Secret Service protection ended almost immediately afterward.
“And the next day, the president canceled the Secret Service, which is fine,” Biden said.
While discussing the matter, Biden noted that his parents will continue to receive Secret Service protection.
“My parents will have Secret Service forever,” he said.
Podcast host Benny Blanco then asked whether Biden believed he was the first person to have Secret Service protection revoked under such circumstances.
“I think so,” Biden responded.

Loomer later responded to the podcast clip by reposting it on X with the caption, “LOOMERED.”
In another post, she defended her role in drawing attention to Biden’s taxpayer-funded security detail and took credit for its removal.
“How is me getting Hunter Biden’s Secret Service protection removed a bad thing when it was paid for by taxpayers?” Loomer wrote. “It was a total scam of the American people and I stopped it. Honestly, I deserve a medal. But all I get is s— talk.”
Loomer had first posted about Biden’s trip on March 13, 2025, alleging that he was in South Africa after previously telling a judge he could not afford his legal expenses.
In that post, she accused Biden of having “fled the country.”
Loomer also wrote in a follow-up comment that she could confirm Biden was accompanied by a Secret Service detail during the trip.
“I can also confirm that Hunter Biden has Secret Service detail with him right now on the ground in South Africa,” she wrote.
The following week, President Donald Trump announced that the Secret Service protective details assigned to Hunter Biden and his sister, Ashley Biden, had been removed.
Hunter Biden’s comments mark the first time he has publicly connected the loss of his Secret Service protection to Loomer’s social media posts about his South Africa trip.
The decision was consistent with other actions taken by Trump regarding government-funded security details. The president has previously revoked protective details assigned to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and former U.S. envoy to Iran Brian Hook.