Politics - News Analysis

REPORT: Taxpayers Continue to Fund the Lifestyles of Trump’s Adult Children

If there’s one thing former President Donald Trump and his kids seem to have down pat, it’s grifting, and that hasn’t changed even though Trump is out of office.

Indeed, you might think we taxpayers are no longer footing his family’s bills, but according to this report from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), you’d be wrong. Trump’s adult children have cost taxpayers a mountain of money over the years, and apparently, that hasn’t changed since he left office. Records obtained from the Secret Service by CREW reveal that in the 30 days after Trump left office, his children’s travel cost taxpayers more than $140,000. This figure doesn’t include charges at Trump’s properties in Bedminster, New Jersey, Palm Beach, Florida, and Briar Cliff, New York. Add those in and the costs would likely be much higher

Why are these charges all different? Because they occurred after President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Add to that the fact that a former president’s children, in most cases, are not entitled to Secret Service protection once their father is no longer president. But in this case, Trump took the unusual step of extending protection for his family members and for three top appointees for six months. Meaning, of course, that they all are funneling even more money into his properties.

In order to get a better idea about how much all of this is costing, CREW filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in February, and that turned out to be quite revealing.

In April 2020 CREW reported the Trump family took 12 times as many protected trips as the Obama family did per year, so no one was surprised that this additional six months of protection has turned out to be costly. The Trump kids have kept up their frenetic traveling, racking up mountains of hotel and transportation bills for the Secret Service. Transportation costs climbed all the way up to $52,296.75, while hotel costs totaled at least $88,678.39, per the records.

After leaving their jobs at the White House, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump took a ten-day vacation in Salt Lake City with their three children, to the tune of $62,599.39 just on hotels as part of their Secret Service detail. From there they traveled to Miami for the month of February, with a brief stay at Trump’s Bedminster golf club from February 19-21. The Secret Service didn’t provide the receipts for this leg of the trip but CREW reports taxpayers likely footed the bill, to the benefit of Trump’s properties.

Trump’s middle son Eric, and his wife Lara spent most of February in New York at the Briarcliff property, with trips to Queens, a trip to Miami, and two to Palm Beach, which cost the Secret Service at least $12,742. The agency didn’t provide spending records at Trump properties, although it’s likely this is where the couple was staying and where Eric was working. So it’s safe to assume some spending helped fatten the Trump family bottom line.

Donald Trump Jr. also spent time in New York City, Long Island, and Upstate New York. Then he and Eric converged in Palm Beach. CREW reports Don Jr.’s travel cost at least $13,337, and (of course) this doesn’t include receipts for Trump properties.

CREW decided to extrapolate from this to estimate how much all of this would actually cost over a period of six months, which was tricky because the Secret Service didn’t provide records of spending at Trump businesses, something that’s arguably the most controversial aspect of the extended protection. Even so, that six-month estimate came to nearly $1 million. And he and his grifting family have a few more months to spend taxpayer dollars.

Just imagine if he runs in 2024. We get to do this all over again. Whether or not we like it.

meet the author

Megan has lived in California, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and she currently lives in Central America. Living in these places has informed her writing on politics, science, and history. She is currently owned by 15 cats and 3 dogs and regularly owns Trump supporters when she has the opportunity. She can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GaiaLibra and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/politicalsaurus

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