Documents show Trump properties charged Secret Service higher rates than previously claimed
Newly released receipts and billing documents show that taxpayers paid for an additional $157,000 in charges stemming from the Secret Service staying at President Trump's properties, The Washington Post reports.
Since his inauguration, President Trump has spent 355 days visiting his own properties, the Post estimates. Trump's son, Eric Trump, has said agents "stay at our properties for free — meaning, like, cost for housekeeping," later adding, "we charge them, like, 50 bucks." The new receipts obtained by the watchdog group Public Citizen show that in 2017, 2018, and 2019, the Secret Service was charged for 177 additional nightly room rentals at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, at a cost of $396.15 per night, per room.
During the summer of 2018 and part of the summer of 2019, The Secret Service was also charged $17,000 per month to rent the Sarazen Cottage at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Local listings show this was an unusually high rate for homes in the area, the Post notes. The Secret Service paid the rental fee even when Trump and agents were not visiting the property.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Before these new receipts were made public, the Post estimated that Trump's company has charged the Secret Service at least $628,000 since 2017.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
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.
-
Ecuador rejects push to allow US military basesSpeed Read Voters rejected a repeal of a constitutional ban on US and other foreign military bases in the country
-
Trump pivots on Epstein vote amid GOP defectionsSpeed Read The president said House Republicans should vote on a forced release of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files
-
Trump DOJ sues to block California redistrictingSpeed Read California’s new congressional map was drawn by Democrats to flip Republican-held House seats
-
GOP retreats from shutdown deal payout provisionSpeed Read Senators are distancing themselves from a controversial provision in the new government funding package
-
Catholic bishops rebuke Trump on immigrationSpeed Read ‘We feel compelled’ to ‘raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity,’ the bishops said
-
House releases Epstein emails referencing TrumpSpeed Read The emails suggest Trump knew more about Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage women than he has claimed
-
Newsom slams Trump’s climate denial at COP30speed read Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax,’ declined to send any officials to this week’s summit
-
UK, Colombia halt intel to US over boat attacksSpeed Read Both countries have suspended intelligence sharing with the US over the bombing of civilian boats suspected of drug smuggling


