Steve Hilton vows to end California taxpayer-funded security for Kamala Harris's book tour if elected governor

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has pledged to strip Kamala Harris of her taxpayer-funded California Highway Patrol protection detail if he wins the governor's race in November, branding the arrangement a "corrupt freebie" that forces state officers to trail the former vice president across the country on her memoir tour.

The promise follows revelations that emerged Tuesday showing CHP officers have been shadowing Harris on her book tour since September, after President Trump ended the federal security detail that Harris had secured through a Biden-signed executive order. Dozens of officers have reportedly been pulled from regular duty to protect her.

California officials have refused to disclose how many officers are assigned to Harris or how much the operation costs. The state's own CHP union says it doesn't know either.

The Security Shuffle

The timeline tells the story. Harris got Joe Biden to sign an order extending her federal government security through July. Trump ended it in September. California then stepped in, granting her state-level protection through the CHP. And ever since, officers who would otherwise be patrolling California's highways have been following Harris from city to city as she promotes her memoir, "107 Days," a book about her brief 2024 presidential campaign.

That tour is no modest affair. It launched September 24 in New York City as a 15-city swing through Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, Portland, Nashville, Miami, Toronto, and London. After selling out those dates, Harris added 18 more for 2026, starting January 13 in New Orleans and concluding April 10 in Anaheim.

A Secret Service threat intelligence assessment found no credible evidence of a threat to Harris.

So California taxpayers are funding a protection detail for a book tour spanning two countries and dozens of cities, for a former official the federal government's own intelligence assessment says faces no credible threat. And the state won't say what it costs.

Hilton's Challenge

Hilton didn't mince words when he spoke to the Post:

"The Kamala Harris book tour is obviously part of her presidential campaign. Her donors – if she has any – should be paying for her security, not Californians who already pay the highest taxes in the country for the worst results."

He framed it as part of a broader pattern of Democratic governance in the state:

"This is yet another example of the Democrat political machine siphoning off taxpayer cash into their bottomless money pit of waste, fraud and abuse. We are sick of it. As governor I will immediately cancel this corrupt Kamala freebie."

Hilton also pointed to the operational cost beyond dollars, noting that CHP officers are being diverted from actual law enforcement work:

"Our brave CHP officers have enough on their plate dealing with the Democrats' crime wave without having to traipse around after a failed and rejected machine politician who can't bear to be out of the limelight."

What Sacramento Won't Say

The opacity around this arrangement is remarkable. State officials haven't disclosed the number of officers assigned to Harris or the total taxpayer tab. The California Association Highway Patrolmen, the CHP's own union, offered a careful statement acknowledging the situation while admitting it lacks basic details:

"Because the CAHP is unaware of the exact amount of resources (numbers of union members working the protection), including the cost, we are not qualified to provide an opinion regarding staffing or budget stress (if at all) this has created."

The union that represents the officers doing the work doesn't know how many of its own members are on the detail or what it costs. That's not transparency. That's a wall.

Republican Assemblyman Tom Lackey, who spent 28 years as a CHP officer himself, told KCRA the spending is significant. He acknowledged the amount is "a lot" and said Harris was entitled to protection by law enforcement officers if credible threats exist, as mandated by state law. But he also conceded he didn't have a specific figure.

The Accountability Gap

There's a straightforward question here that Sacramento seems determined not to answer: how much are California taxpayers spending to provide security for a private citizen's commercial book tour?

Harris is California's former attorney general. She held statewide office. That history may create some obligation under state law if credible threats exist. But the federal government already evaluated that question, and the Secret Service found no credible threat. That didn't stop California from stepping in the moment Trump pulled federal resources.

Consider the mechanics. A former vice president writes a memoir. She launches a sprawling multi-city, multi-country tour to sell it. The federal government determines she faces no credible security threat. A state government then assigns dozens of highway patrol officers to follow her from New York to London to Toronto, pulls them off their regular duties, and declines to tell anyone what it costs.

If a Republican former official arranged anything similar, the coverage would be relentless. Reporters would file FOIA requests by the hour. Editorial boards would demand line-item accounting. Watchdog groups would issue press releases.

Instead, we get a union that can't say how many of its members are involved and a state government that won't answer basic budget questions.

What Comes Next

Hilton has turned this into a campaign issue, and it's an effective one. California voters face some of the highest tax burdens in the nation. Their highways are patrolled by fewer officers so that those officers can follow a former politician through book signings in other states and other countries. The state won't say what it costs. The federal threat assessment says there's no credible danger. And the tour keeps expanding.

Whether Hilton wins the governor's race is a question for November. But the question he's asking now doesn't require an election to answer. It only requires Sacramento to open the books.

So far, they won't.