For the Secret Service, an overwhelming new question: Who will protect them from the President of the United States, Donald Trump?

For more than a century, Secret Service agents have lived by a simple spirit: They will take the president where he wants to go, even if it means putting their bodies in front of a bullet.

But that guiding principle has been tested in recent days by President Donald Trump’s desire to return to work, play, or campaign, despite an active coronavirus infection that could pose a serious threat to those around him.

The problem came into focus on Sunday when a masked Trump got into a hermetically sealed armored Chevy Suburban with at least two Secret Service agents, covered from head to toe in the same personal protective equipment that doctors wear, so the president could greet a group of supporters outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Medical experts said the move recklessly put officers at risk. Secret Service personnel have privately questioned whether additional precautions will be taken to protect the detail of the man they have promised to protect.

“It’s on everyone’s mind,” said W Ralph Basham, former director of the Secret Service and commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection in the George W. Bush administration. “Those who are no longer there are happy not to be there. These are tough decisions to make. “

On Monday night, Trump again appeared determined to endanger the officers around him when he flew back to the White House by helicopter after being released from the hospital.

Central to the work of Secret Service agents is the willingness to say yes to the president no matter what he asks.

Now, that means subjecting an agent’s health to Trump’s whims.

Critics say the president is not repaying the dedication of his patrons with anything like care or consideration. While officers have volunteered to sacrifice for those they protect, they do so knowing that there is a low probability that they will have to come between a gunman and the president.

“If they’re in the protection detachment, they’ll take a bullet for their protégé,” said Janet Napolitano, former President Barack Obama’s first secretary for national security. “There is a difference between that and being unnecessarily exposed to risks,” she added, one that extends to their families.

The visit to Trump supporters drove home that point, Napolitano said.

“There was nothing in your little caravan yesterday that was necessary, wise or necessary,” he said Monday. “It was a superfluous act.”

Secret Service agents have always needed to make last-minute adjustments based on the political whims of presidents, said Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian. And the relationship between presidents and their protective details has generally allowed for a limited amount of debate.

But in the end, presidents have an appetite for making public appearances to their supporters, allies, and, in some cases, adversaries. And the president has the last word.

“These are people who have volunteered to lay down their lives for theirs, and almost every president I can remember uses that privilege with care and with great respect,” said Beschloss.

Trump responded to the criticism Monday by blaming the media.

“I got into a safe vehicle to thank the many fans and supporters who stood outside the hospital for many hours, and even days, to pay their respects to their president,” he posted on Twitter. “If I didn’t, the media would say RUDE !!!”

Rand Beers, former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, acknowledged that presidents were required to convey “to the nation that things are on the right track.”

“But,” he added, “you are still putting officers at risk if you are not taking precautions.”

The day after Trump’s trip, Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, demanded a briefing from the Department of Homeland Security to learn more about safeguards in place for agency employees. and specifically the protection detail.

“The height of reckless disregard for others was the president’s joy ride yesterday, where Secret Service agents were required to drive him in a hermetically sealed vehicle,” Thompson said. “Exposing Secret Service personnel to the virus not only puts them at risk, it puts their families and the public at risk.”

As other law enforcement agencies have done, the Secret Service has also been forced to overcome a number of daunting obstacles created by the pandemic. Trump and his Democratic election opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, have continued to travel and the nature of protection does not allow for social distancing.

Before Trump held an indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June, at least two Secret Service members who were preparing for the event tested positive for the virus. A trip planned by Vice President Mike Pence to Arizona in July was canceled after several members of his security team contracted the virus.

The New York Times reported Friday that the agency had suffered an outbreak at its training facility in rural Maryland in August after the trainees were believed to have held a graduation dinner indoors without social distancing. That outbreak, in which at least 11 people tested positive, occurred despite the agency’s decision to shut down the facility to establish procedures to prevent broadcasts.

When asked about Trump’s trip on Sunday, Secret Service spokeswoman Justine Whelan said in a statement that the agency “does not discuss our protégés or the specific means and methods with respect to our protective mission.”

The agency has not released a total number of confirmed coronavirus cases among its workforce.

“We are in uncharted waters here,” Basham said, adding: “At the end of the day, work is what it is. You can’t do this on a Zoom call or remote type of thing. These agents and officers have to be there with him, and there is no substitute for that. “

Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Michael S. Schmidt c. 2020 The New York Times Company