As the leader of the world’s most powerful country, the position of the president of the United States is among the most coveted. Besides wielding significant influence over global affairs, presidents have access to unbridled power, and their decisions have a far-reaching impact on the lives of people everywhere.
While the president enjoys a long list of privileges like access to the president’s Cadillac limo and the amazing features of Air Force One, the role also comes with significant challenges. And some of these persist long after a president has left office. Things most people take for granted — including receiving parcels, purchasing an electronic device of their choice, and even something as basic as driving a car –are off limits long after presidents return to being private citizens.
Multiple former presidents, including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, have discussed their inability to drive around in their own cars long after they vacated the presidency. You heard that right: Leaders of the free world aren’t free to drive their own vehicles, not just during their term but for the rest of their post-presidency life. Let’s understand why.
The Secret Service doesn’t like self-driving former presidents
Once a person becomes the president, life as an ordinary private citizen becomes nearly impossible — even after leaving office. One major reason is the U.S. Secret Service’s extensive security measures, which remain a constant presence in the lives of former presidents. While no law prohibits former presidents from driving on public roads, the Secret Service strongly discourages it, preferring that agents take the wheel whenever a former president or their immediate family members travel.
As a result, many former presidents have limited their driving to private property. President Ronald Reagan, for example, frequently drove around his 688-acre California ranch in four-wheel-drive Jeeps. Similarly, Bush, known for his Texas ranch, often drove a 2009 Ford F-150 King Ranch 4×4 SuperCrew pickup on his property, a vehicle later auctioned for charity for $300,000.
Obama doesn’t own a vast ranch, but he has been seen driving only in controlled environments, such as a golf cart at Andrews Air Force Base. His rare public driving includes a brief test drive of a Chevrolet Volt at a General Motors plant and another short drive of a Volt on the White House lawn.
Clinton also had a brush with the Secret Service’s strict driving policies. During a visit to the late King Hussein of Jordan, the king offered him the chance to drive a Mercedes. Clinton ultimately declined — not because of security concerns, but because the car had a manual transmission, and he could only drive automatics.
Everything changed after the JFK assassination
The 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy is cited as the reason why the Secret Service stopped letting presidents drive on public roads. It’s believed that his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had a Lagoon Blue Amphicar — one of the unexpected cars former presidents used to own — was the last president to have had the opportunity to drive himself around.
In 1965, two years after Kennedy’s death, Congress passed a law that provided former presidents and their spouses the opportunity to have lifetime protective Secret Service details. The former president could decline protection, but this hasn’t happened.
The law’s financial implications eventually led to Congress, in 1994, reducing the protection to 10 years post-presidency. However, 18 years later it reversed course with the Former Presidents Protection Act of 2012, which reinstated lifetime Secret Service cover for the rest of all former presidents’ lifetimes.
As far as current President Donald Trump is concerned, he’s a car collector and has owned a Lamborghini Diablo, a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, and a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, among others. But his billionaire lifestyle has resulted in him spending most of his time for years being chauffeur-driven. It seems unlikely, therefore, that he would be too concerned about the loss of his driving privileges post-presidency.
