HOTEL BILL

Trump Charged Secret Service an Additional $157K: Docs

Newly obtained bills reveal that Trump charged the Secret Service abnormally high rates to stay at his private resort and golf club.

President Trump’s company has billed U.S. taxpayers an additional $157,000 in charges for the Secret Service, including room stays at his private hotels and clubs, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. Thousands of pages of receipts obtained by watchdog group Public Citizen through a 2017 public records request revealed that the Secret Service was charged abnormally high rates to accompany the president at his private properties, the Post reported. Trump has reportedly charged the Secret Service $628,000 since he was sworn into office in 2017. The president’s son, Eric Trump, previously said that agents “stay at our property for free,” and later added, “we charge them, like, 50 bucks.” The receipts—which include charges for 590 nights at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Golf Club—reveal abnormally high rates for rooms at his properties. The charges include $650 per night at Mar-a-Lago and $566.64 per night at Trump’s golf club, the Post reported. One bill to the Secret Service reportedly amounted to $22,580 for 57 nights at the president’s resort in 2017. The documents, however, only reflect the president’s first two years in office. “That is not how the process is supposed to work,” said Robert Weissman, the president of Public Citizen. “Responding in 2020 with information from 2017 and 2018 is not okay.”