Secret Service agents usually accompany the president and his family members whenever they travel outside of the White House. The Trump family has been no exception – every time on of PresidentDonald Trump’s adult children, Eric, Donald Jr., Ivanka and Tiffany, have gone on vacations to various Trump properties out of the White House, Secret Service has come with them. However, safety might not have been the only benefit that the Trump children received when Secret Service came on these trips.
Trump’s company charged the Secret Service for every trip agents came on when visiting a Trump property. For example, Ivanka regularly traveled to the Trump golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, over coronavirus quarantine. She brought Secret Service agents each time, and they stayed in hotel rooms at the golf club. Because it’s a Trump property, the Trump Organization, which is still owned by the president, was able to charge Secret Service for the hotel room bills, which reportedly ranged from hundreds to thousands of dollars a night.
The U.S. government has been charged at least $238,000 by the Trump Organization in expenses at Trump properties so far during his presidency. Trump family members have also traveled with Secret Service detail to Trump properties over 270 times over the past four years.
Experts in government ethics say that although there is nothing wrong with Trump’s children requesting Secret Service detail when they travel, charging the agents for rooms made it possible for the Trump Organization to bring taxpayer dollars to their businesses. This could mean that Trump’s family has been exploiting the publicly funded presidency for financial gain for their private business.
Often times, it’s not just one Trump hotel or property that charges the government. Trump family members are always traveling, and so there are instances where they will be staying at multiple Trump hotels around the world at the same time. For example, on July 25, 2017, the government was charged in three different countries for Trump hotel costs.
Other times, specifically at the Bedminster facility in New Jersey, Secret Service pays nightly rent every day from May to November, just in case the president pays a visit. So while the government, on July 25, 2017, paid $6,500 in Ireland for Eric Trump’s visit, and $5,800 in Vancouver for Donald Trump Jr.’s stay, they also paid $567 (the nightly rate) in Bedminster, where Trump wasn’t even staying (he was at a political rally in Ohio). This totals to $12,867 spent at Trump properties on that one day in July.
This revelation does not come at a convenient time for the Trump family. Trump is currently trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the polls, after a report by the New York Times released devastating information about Trump’s tax returns, which showed that his businesses have lost millions over the past few years.
