On the April 27 edition of Newsmax’s Wake Up America, co-host Marc Lotter claimed Secret Service agents are not being paid due to an ongoing partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security. Although the shutdown has affected some Secret Service functions, multiple sources have recently confirmed that Secret Service agents “have been paid during the shutdown.” According to a New York Times report from March 31, “Law enforcement officers at Customs and Border Protection and the Secret Service are also being paid, along with more than 40,000 U.S. Coast Guard military personnel.” CNN also heard from a senior administration official that “paychecks for sworn law enforcement officers in ICE, CBP and the Secret Service, as well as for Coast Guard military personnel, are being funded by the ‘big, beautiful bill.’”
Newsmax host falsely claims Secret Service Agents are not being paid
The NY Times and CNN have both reported recently that Secret Service agents are being paid
Published
Citation
From the April 27, 2026, edition of Newsmax's Wake Up America
SHARLA MCBRIDE (HOST): So I want to start with this, the Wall Street Journal, quoting a guest who attended the Correspondents Dinner saying guests could enter the hotel by simply showing a dinner ticket or a copy of an invite on an email, the narrative here being that they needed to add more security. Rick, I understand that you were supposed to go to the dinner, but at the very last minute you chose not to attend. I know you had many friends there as well. What are you hearing from people who were there?
RICK GATES (GUEST): Yeah, I think it's a it's mixed messaging, really. It's interesting that you have an event like this that has gone on obviously for decades and very rare, you know, few issues. And when you look at this one, you know, I think there are two things concerning here - the radicalization, you know, of the of the perpetrator.
MCBRIDE: Right.
GATES: And then also just the overall security apparatus and what happened. And when you look at the different layers of security there, and if you've been and Marc and I have both been and Bob has to to many events involving the president, they are highly regulated. Right? You've got a ton of layers of security. So I think, you know, there is a distinction, and Marc actually alluded to it, you know, between protecting the event and protecting the principles. And so, you know, we've been through many of those events, many at the, you know, Hilton Hotel where there is just a very random ticket, you can actually get some of these, you know, the day of the night of because people are in and out and you don't know who actually is coming. So I think there needs to be absolutely a better job at least of vetting the individuals there. Obviously, this individual had, you know, preplanned this in quite some time before the event, which I think is very interesting. I think there's going to be a lot of focus on that aspect. But yeah, the security used is typically not great at these events.
MARC LOTTER (HOST): Yeah. Bob, I mean, I don't think we can say this enough. A Secret Service agent took a bullet in his vest. Luckily he survived. He's not being paid right now. The Secret Service, all law enforcement agencies, the Department of Homeland Security are not being paid. Democrats are holding up their pay. And you got to wonder if this will loosen things up to like, guys, can we put this nonsense behind us? Have your policy debate in a campaign, don't put agents who are jumping on armed gunmen and as volunteers.
BOB MCEWEN: Marc, you're 100% correct. But, you know, I think we really need to focus on why is it that the Democrats will not pass this bill --
MCBRIDE: Right.
MCEWEN: And the reason behind that they don't want to support Homeland Security is because that the Roosevelt coalition that was the Blacks and Catholics, Hispanics and organized labor has begun to disintegrate for Democrats and as Black men and as well as Hispanics because of life, organized labor is overwhelmingly supportive of Trump. And they recognize that what they needed to do was bring in additional voters, 20 to 25 million new voters that they brought in under the Biden administration, and they want them to vote. Now, what they'll say is that they're not allowed to because they're not citizens. That comes to this bill. This bill says we will pass it tomorrow. We'll fund Homeland Security. We'll fund Social Security, we'll -- Secret Service, we'll fund all those things, if you put a provision that says that ICE, the immigration enforcement is not allowed to function around a voting booth. Now, let me say that again. They will pass these bills if they say you cannot enforce immigration, custom enforcement around a voting booth. That's what Democrats -- that's why they're holding all of this up. Why? Because they're afraid that the people Donald Trump has not exported as many people -- deported as many people as Obama did.
MCBRIDE: Yeah.
MCEWEN: But they know that the people that he would be deporting are their new voters, and they're holding on to it for dear life, even to the risk of our nation, our president and its leaders.
MCBRIDE: You make a great point. And the president says that all of this bolsters his case for a white House ballroom.