Thousands of President Trump's supporters reveled in the raucous start to his 2020 reelection campaign last night. But around 150 folks in and around Orlando's Amway Center weren't having very much fun at all.

Namely, the agents and officers of the U.S. Secret Service. Because for those public servants and their compatriots across the nation, two factors will make the 2020 campaign a particular protective challenge: scale and emotion.

The scale issue is already clear. At least 24 Democrats are presently competing to be their party's nominee. While some will inevitably drop out long before next summer's Democratic convention, a good number will remain in the race at least through the early primaries in 2020. Considering the assessment protocols for assigning protective details to candidates, I suspect that at least five candidates will have Secret Service protection by December 2019. These being: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg. Biden, Sanders, and Warren are likely to receive details as front-runners.

Harris, who is black, and Buttigieg, who is gay, are likely to receive details due to identity-driven threats. We've already seen one concerning incident via a stage invader who ripped a microphone from Harris' hands.

But for the Secret Service, that scale doesn't come easy. Even small candidate details require around 15 agents in order to provide shifts over a 24 hour, 7-day week period. But the leading candidates will have details two to three times that size. The Secret Service will also have to provide uniform division officers to conduct screening at campaign rallies.

It gets worse. Because the Secret Service's Presidential Protective Division will also have to expand its footprint to handle President Trump's increasing travel schedule.

Then there's the emotion issue.

There's a reason the Secret Service don't like campaign rallies like Trump's last night. While we see democracy in action, the Secret Service see a thin line between managed chaos and disaster. Campaign rallies, after all, involve mix of excited fans, media jockeying for position (and press pen infiltration concerns), unpredictable candidate behavior — does a candidate invite random supporters onto the stage? Prior publicity of campaign events also allows potential assailants — or protesters — to plot in advance. And 21st century protection means that even the most seemingly harmless of instruments must be treated as possible threats.

This emotion also requires the Secret Service to significantly ramp up its protective intelligence investigations during campaign season. Fixated individuals, mentally ill individuals, and terrorists all introduce threat concerns that must be handled efficiently and professionally.

Of course, the Secret Service's protection role doesn't begin and end with campaigns: it must also sustain its other standing responsibilities.These include site security at protectee residences and at special events, protecting visiting heads of state and U.S. officials on foreign visits. And there's the entire investigative side of the Secret Service mission! The necessary counterfeiting, cyber, fraud, and other criminal investigations that agents conduct every day.

So whatever your political views, spare a thought today for some great patriots. The men and women of the Secret Service won't be enjoying the next year and a half.