 "US Vice President JD Vance addresses the audience during the Munich Security Conference at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich, Germany. (Photo: AP)")
US Vice President JD Vance’s team told the US Army to increase the water level of a river so that he could enjoy a family vacation on boat, according to a report.
The development has come at a time when the Donald Trump administration has been cutting healthcare and food assistance to millions of common Americans and shutting down vaccine programmes in the name of cutting excess government expenditure.
The Guardian has reported that Vance’s Secret Service detail told the US Army’s Corps of Engineers to increase the outflow of a lake in Ohio to increase the water level in a river in August — Vance vacationed in the Little Miami river at the time for his 41st birthday.
While the Army told the newspaper that the Secret Service’s stated reason for the increase in water flow was to “support safe navigation” of Vance’s security detail for an August outing, a source said that the real reason was to create “ideal kayaking conditions” for the vice president’s family vacation.
In any case, the increase of the water flow is not illegal and such alterations have been carried out previously as well to ensure the movement of watercraft providing security or transport to senior officials. However, the alteration of a river’s water flow for a personal vacation and that too at a time when the administration has been cutting healthcare and food assistance of the poorest Americans is bound to raise eyebrows.
Publicly available data with US Geological Survey (USGS) shows that there was indeed a sudden increase in the river level and corresponding drop in lake elevation during the early August days when Vance was vacationing in the area, according to the newspaper.