Kennedy’s campaign had requested Secret Service protection for several months and until now had been denied. The change is a direct result of the assassination attempt over the weekend on the ex-president and Republican presidential nominee.

Former President Donald Trump, who also has received extra security, on Monday joined calls for Kennedy to receive federal protection. “Given the history of the Kennedy family, this is the obvious right thing to do!” he said on his social-media platform Truth Social.

During the White House briefing, the Homeland Security secretary said Monday, “We are in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment.”

Kennedy took to social media Monday afternoon to thank President Joe Biden and Kennedy’s own security team, Gavin deBecker & Associates, for “keeping me safe for the last 15 months of my Presidential campaign.”

The Secret Service is authorized to protect major presidential, vice presidential candidates and their spouses within 120 days of the general election. Kennedy made his candidacy official April 2023 when he filed his presidential campaign’s paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.

His late uncle, former President John F. Kennedy was killed by an assassins bullet in Dallas, Texas in 1963. And his late father, former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was assassinated in June 1968 while running for president in an election later won by former President Richard M. Nixon, killed weeks after late civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.

“It is a hopeful sign for our country when a political opponent calls for one’s protection,” Kennedy Jr, 70, posted on X Monday afternoon in reply to Trump’s post. “Maybe our country can unite after all,” Kennedy said.

The younger Kennedy broke with a long-standing family tradition in October by announcing his exit from the Democratic Party in order to continue his presidential campaign as a registered independent — a campaign that has been vocally and outwardly opposed by a majority of the Kennedy family.

He was the subject of scrutiny by Democrats during a July 2023 House judiciary committee hearing on the “weaponization” of the federal government.

Kennedy, who shared misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines which led to his Instagram account being shut down, was among the most outspoken public figures against the vaccine during the pandemic. He has also criticized U.S. funding for Ukraine as a “proxy war” against Russia.

He founded the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense and during the pandemic accused former chief medical adviser to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci, of fascism despite his having worked for both Republican and Democrat presidents.

Kennedy’s campaign announced in May the independent candidate qualified for the ballot in California, the state with the most electoral college votes. In addition to California, the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket as of July 11 is officially on the ballot in 9 states total: Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah.

The campaign has submitted signatures to get ballot access in 15 states: Alaska, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Colorado. And has reportedly collected enough signatures for ballot access in five other states: Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Nevada.

However, despite making the ballot in a handful of states, Kennedy as it stands would fall short of the 270 electoral votes needed to win in November. He has admitted that he will be a “spoiler” candidate who will siphon votes from both Trump and Biden in November’s election, enough to create an electoral imbalance to possibly swing the election to help either the mainstream Democratic or Republican candidates in the final popular vote or Electoral College count to win or keep the White House.