SWAMPY

Secret Service Paid a Whopping $1,185 a Night to Stay at Trump’s Hotels

The Trump family was simultaneously claiming the move was a cost-saver. “If my father travels, they stay at our properties free,” Eric Trump once said.

Eric Trump once claimed that it was a cost-saver for former President Donald Trump to stay at his own properties while on official travel. “If my father travels, [the Secret Service] stay at our properties free,” he said. But the truth has turned out to be quite different. Expense records obtained by Congress show the Trump Organization not only billed the Secret Service, but billed them far higher than the government rate on at least 40 occasions. During one of Donald Trump Jr.’s stays at the Trump International Hotel in D.C., the Secret Service was charged $1,185 a night—nearly six times the government rate. One of Eric and Lara Trump’s stays in D.C. in 2017 cost agents $1,160 a night. The Washington Post reports that taxpayers forked out at least $1.4 million to the Trump Org all up. Eric Trump, the company’s executive VP, said in a statement: “Any services rendered to the United States Secret Service or other government agencies at Trump owned properties, were at their request and were either provided at cost, heavily discounted or for free.”