Report: Mnuchin wants to delay disclosure of Trump's Secret Service travel costs until after the election

(Image credit: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

published 9 January 2020

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin does not want the Secret Service to reveal how much money has been spent protecting President Trump and his adult children on their travels until after the November election, people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.

When the Department of Homeland Security was created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Secret Service was transferred over from the Treasury Department. Mnuchin wants the agency returned to his department, and legislation is being drafted to make this happen. Democrats want the bill to include a requirement that the Secret Service publicly disclose how much is spent on protecting the Trumps while traveling, with the information released within 120 days of its passage.

Mnuchin has agreed to everything except the time line, the Post reports, writing last month in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he doesn't think the information should be released until this December at the earliest. While it's unknown just how much taxpayer money has been spent on the Trumps while traveling, they routinely visit his resorts in Florida and New Jersey. The Government Accountability Office estimated that Trump's four visits to his Mar-a-Lago club in February and March 2017 cost taxpayers $13.6 million. Read more at The Washington Post.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Subscribe to The Week

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox