system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Does the President have to follow the orders of the Secret Service?
gpt
The folks saying "no" are correct, but in an emergency, he probably simply wouldn't have much choice. If you've ever seen the footage of Reagan getting bundled into the limo and driven off during Hinckley's attack, you have some idea of exactly how much decision-making authority he had at the time: none at all.

As a practical matter, the guys who have prepared and trained for the moment are the ones who are going to act.

That doesn't prevent the President from overruling the Secret Service most of the time, of course. If anything imminent was happening, it's hard to imagine the President having the presence of mind to object, though.