REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
U.S. Secret Service agents brace themselves against the prop wash from Marine One as U.S. President Barack Obama arrives.
Fox's Ed Henry reported Monday that representatives of real-estate mogul Donald Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson reached out to the agency amid threats on the campaign trial.
And the Secret Service is apparently taking steps to give the two candidates additional protection.
Indeed, Henry wrote on Twitter that they will be getting 24-hour protection involving 260 agents.
The Secret Service did not immediately return a request for comment from Business Insider, but a Homeland Security spokesperson told CNN that it is currently reviewing the Trump and Carson requests.
Trump has publicly complained by his lack of Secret Service protection.
"We're getting the biggest crowds," he said in a Fox News interview last week, suggesting that partisanship was to blame for his lack of official security. "I know this: If I was a Democrat, they'd have it."
Trump added: "My people have been speaking to them about it. And we'll see what happens. But, again, when you have 20,000 people, that's a lot of people. And even if you have some really fantastic [bodyguards] doing it - and in this case, we have 10 people who are very strong people - when you have 20,000, it's pretty hard to protect, I would imagine."
Candidates generally receive Secret Service protection roughly the same time they win their party nominations, though now-President Barack Obama was assigned a Secret Service detail early in 2007 amid increasing threats against him. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has long had protection as a former first lady.
Both Carson and Trump have ignited a number of campaign-trail controversies. A source told Newsmax that the threats against Carson had been "off the charts."