Documents released this week by the House Oversight Committee offer details about how the Trump Organization charged extremely high rates to the Secret Service for stays at Trump properties. Just for doing their jobs—protection detail for the First Family—the Secret Service received charged for roughly $1.4 million over the four-year term, to stay at Trump hotels.
During his term, Trump frequently traveled to properties owned by his business, including the infamous Palm Beach, FL resort Mar-a-Lago as well as the Trump National Golf Club, located in Bedminster, NJ. Whenever he stayed at these resorts, members of his staff—agents and officers—also stayed in the rooms on those properties.
The Committee discerned that the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service “excessive nightly rates on dozens of trips” during the Trump presidency. These charges could be as high as $1,185 per room per night, despite repeated claims by the former president’s company that federal employees traveling with Trump would be charged “at cost” or stay for free.
According to panel chair, Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), in a letter to the Secret Service’s director, “The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former President’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses.”
Of course, this practice is—and should have always been—considered controversial, at best.
On this note, then, Maloney also comments that her committee has been actively seeking full and complete accounting of all Secret Service expenditures at Trump-owned properties for at least two years of his term. Unfortunately, they have not received full and complete information, particularly regarding the specifics of nightly rates or the total amount spent.
Again, the estimate suggests the total—taxpayer-funded—amount could be more than $1.4 million.
For now, the committee continues to seek records from the Secret Service, noting that they will, if necessary, pursue new legislation to prevent “presidential self-dealing and profiteering” in the future. After all, while this issue is easily a conflict of interest, there is, apparently, no current law preventing it.
