WASHINGTON — President Trump has selected Randolph D. Alles, a retired Marine Corps general and acting deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, to lead the Secret Service, the White House announced on Tuesday.
Mr. Alles, who retired from the Marine Corps as a two-star general in 2011, is the first Secret Service director in at least a century not to have served in the agency’s ranks.
The appointment comes as the storied law enforcement body is straining to keep up with rapid growth in the number of people it protects and to address festering personnel deficiencies that predate the Trump administration.
Mr. Alles, who goes by Tex, will be charged with rebuilding the agency’s ranks, which have been racked by high attrition and low morale. He is also likely to face tough choices about the future of its investigative tasks, a lower-profile but longstanding aspect of its mission.
