ROOM SERVICE

Eric Trump Billed Taxpayers $80K for Two-Day Business Trip to Uruguay

The president’s son has used at least $178,616 in taxpayer funds to work on the development of a Trump Organization property in Punta Del Este.

Eric Trump racked up a taxpayer-funded hotel bill that would make Kevin McCallister weep on a two-day business trip to Uruguay last year. The president’s son visited a Trump Organization property being developed in Punta Del Este on Jan. 8 and 9 in a trip that cost taxpayers at least $80,786, the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington found after obtaining records under the Freedom of Information Act. More than $55,000 went to the Grand Hotel, a luxury hotel one block from the Trump development where Eric stayed.

The costs are part of a massive bill of Secret Service protection that the president’s family has racked up while managing his private business empire. Eric’s previous trip to the Uruguay property in 2017 cost taxpayers $97,830 in hotel rooms for Secret Service and embassy staff. “The fact that his protection comes at such a significant cost when he is promoting foreign business interests raises serious ethics questions, as the company could repay the government, although we’ve seen no signs that they do,” CREW said.