The Secret Service, despite having a cool spy-sounding name, has been mostly useless as a protective detail. The only argument for its existence was that it was a step up from relying on local police forces or military units, never mind Pinkertons, for a protection detail. Teddy Roosevelt finally got the Secret Service tasked with a protective detail while the White House police, formerly a part of the Metro cops, became the uniformed force. The track record since then has been underwhelming. Just ask JFK or Reagan or Trump.

And while it’s hard to know what government action is incompetence and what’s weaponized incompetence, months after a previous Trump assassination attempt, the Secret Service let the second assassin hang around the area of the golf course for 12 hours and allowed a security loophole that reporters routinely used to snap photos of Trump remain open.

The gunman who allegedly staked out former President Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course with an SKS rifle was able to exploit a security hole that the Secret Service has known about for years.

News photographers — including those hired by The Post — have had no problem repeatedly securing spots around the perimeter of the course to snap pictures of Trump playing golf or driving around in a golf cart.

They have even taken images — which require a clear line of sight to the 45th president — unnoticed through the bushes with telephoto lenses. Some have gotten as close as 75 yards — without so much as a sideways glance from the Secret Service.

“They’re always amazed how close they can get to Trump and his entourage — it’s easy for them,” one photo agency source told The Post.

Photographers typically announce themselves to the Secret Service so they are not mistaken for threats, but the source said agents are easy enough to evade.

Nothing seemed to have been changed since the last assassination attempt. All business as usual.

So incompetence or weaponized incompetence?