The Trump Organization charged the Secret Service “exorbitant rates” as much as $1,185 a night to stay at properties belonging to former president Donald Trump. The Trump Organization charged the Secret Service upwards of a whopping $1.4 million.
A congressional committee released documents that appeared to show the former president directly profiting from his protection details both in and out of office.
House Oversight Committee found that the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service “excessive nightly rates on dozens of trips” as high as $1,185 per night despite claims by the former President’s company that federal employees traveling with him would stay at those properties “for free” or “at cost.”
The Secret Service is mandated by law to protect the president and his family.
The records were obtained by the Democratic-led House oversight committee as part of its investigation into Trump’s conflicts of interest.
“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,” the committee chair, the New York representative Carolyn Maloney, said in a statement.
When he was president, Trump traveled frequently to properties his company ran as businesses, including Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. While he was there, some agents and officers stayed in rooms at those properties.
Charging his protective detail for lodging at his own properties was a controversial practice when Trump was in office and has continued in his post-presidency.
The documents directly contradicted statements from the former president’s son Eric Trump. In 2019, he said the Secret Service was charged “like, $50” for stays in the family hotels. In 2020, he changed that tune again, claiming the rooms were provided at cost.
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