So, who didn’t see this coming? Who could have possibly predicted that the Trumps were making money hand over fist, lying to us taxpayers about how much we are paying to Trump himself, in order for his own protection at his own resorts?
See that tight little circle? Why would the man ever spend a weekend in the White House or at Camp David when he can go down to Mara-a-Lago or up to New Jersey and make money while he luxuriates at his own place?
Bilking us for weekends away is what is happening. Trump leaves the White House for one of his places, and suddenly the entire presidential apparatus is turned on its face into a money-making con-job for the Trumps.
Rawstory brilliantly breaks [1] down the numbers as obtained by Public Citizen and the Washington Post:
Eric Trump has claimed [2] that Secret Service agents “stay at our properties for free — meaning, like, cost for housekeeping.” He insisted last year that “we charge them, like, 50 bucks.”
Now, any other presidential son could probably be believed that they likely are charging someone “at cost,” since it is unseemly to be making money off the people who are supposed to take a bullet for the president. But since it’s Eric, well, they probably checked precisely because is was the six-fingered little brat.
But receipts obtained by Public Citizen and first reported by The Washington Post [3] show that Trump’s properties have charged the Secret Service $396 per night for 177 rentals at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort since he took office.
The Post previously reported [4] that some Trump properties charge taxpayers as much as $650 per room. The president’s Bedminster, N.J. golf club also charged $17,000 per month for Secret Service agents to rent a cottage on the property. The Secret Service continued to pay for the cottage even after he left.
Near $400 per rental for 177 rentals? Pretty soon that could become a lot of money for … basically nothing. I seriously doubt that those rooms are always full and thus they’re just “keeping pace” by charging the Secret Service. No, if the pattern is like in Scotland, we know that this is just free money, charging the highest room rates for rooms that would otherwise be empty.
We know, because otherwise Eric Trump wouldn’t have been so stupid as to tell us that it was “like, free – or maybe $50 for housecleaning.” Eric, $400 isn’t “like” $50, unless you’d accept the “like $50” portion as your take-home pay at the end of the year.
Jesus, these people, making money off the folks that work so hard for them …
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom