Trump hotels have reportedly billed $1.1 million to cover Secret Service stays during presidential visits — including a five-figure tab while the New Jersey golf resort was closed for the coronavirus shutdown.
The Washington Post on Thursday revealed an additional $188,000 in hotel bills picked up by the American taxpayers covering his eponymous outpost in Bedminster, New Jersey, where agents camped out for months on end in case the mercurial president decided to make a spur-of-the-moment jaunt there.
The resort in leafy horse country even charged taxpayers $21,000 to stay in a spiffy cottage for a weekend in April when the club was officially closed to comply with New Jersey’s coronavirus restrictions.
That stay coincides with first daughter Ivanka Trump’s reported trip to spend Passover with her family while most families were hunkered down at home respecting the do-not-travel edict.
The $1.1 million total covers the entire nearly four years of Trump’s presidency.
The Post obtained the documents via a Freedom of Information Act request from the Secret Service, which does not routinely release any such details. The paper is compiling a running total of bills as it receives fresh documents such as the recent disclosures covering stays at Bedminster.
The president’s self-named hospitality empire has raked in big bucks housing the agents who protect President Donald Trump and his family during visits to the hotels and clubs.
Although there is nothing illegal about the Secret Service staying at Trump hotels, ethics experts decry the practice as brazen self-dealing.
It amounts to pouring taxpayer money into the pocket of Trump, who still owns and benefits from his properties, unlike other presidents who sold assets that do business with the feds.
Trump also relishes using his office to promote his properties and has made money hosting foreign leaders at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Trump is fighting several lawsuits claiming that he violates the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by improperly benefiting from foreign business.
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