When you sign up for the US Secret Service, you sign up to risk your life in order to protect those you serve.

Sometimes, that also includes driving around in an enclosed space with somebody who is COVID-19 positive, but those days are almost behind us.

I guess one perk of the job is getting to give nicknames – sorry, codenames – to those you protect, including the current president and his family.

This from Quartz is a good starting point:

The codenames for Tiffany and Barron Trump have not been publicly reported on.

Donald as ‘Mogul’ makes sense, with the real estate business and all. Family members of presidential candidates traditionally all have Secret Service codenames that begin with the same letter.

Melania as ‘Muse’ is a strange one, and Jared Kushner’s codename is ‘Mechanic’, and Ivanka Trump’s is ‘Marvel’.

We can put Jared’s down to the fact that he’s basically a robot devoid of emotion, although Ivanka’s remains a mystery.

Don Jr.’s codename is ostensibly due to the fact that he is an ‘outdoorsman’, although I’d say it should be linked to the mountains of cocaine he has been accused of hoovering up during the past few months:

You good, @DonaldJTrumpJr? pic.twitter.com/8CD7NoiIO0

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) November 1, 2020

The kind of face you see outside a Long Street bar toilet in the wee hours.

Eric is an avid hunter (so manly – remember that leopard?), hence ‘Marksman’.

The Secret Service has already bestowed a codename on president-elect Joe Biden, ‘Celtic’, which is due to his Irish roots.

Biden’s great-great-great-grandfather, Edward Blewitt, was from Ballina, County Mayo, and left Ireland for the US during the potato famine.

Kamala Harris is reported to have chosen ‘Pioneer’ as her codename, which, as the first Black, Indian American, and woman Vice President in US history, speaks for itself.

According to Britannica, Barack Obama went by ‘Renegade’, George W. Bush by ‘Trailblazer’ (nothing quite like riding your father’s coattails into the White House), Bill Clinton’s was ‘Eagle’, and George H.W. Bush went by ‘Timberwolf’.

You can find more past president codenames here.

[sources:quartz&britannica]