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.
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.