US taxpayers reportedly are being soaked with a £24,000 bill for portable toilets in Bedminster, New Jersey, where ex-President Donald Trump is living at his golf resort for the summer.
The Secret Service is renting bathroom trailers until the end of September, according to government procurement notices obtained by The Daily Beast. The cost works out at about £6,000 per month – or around £200 per day.
Trump is reportedly staying at his Trump National Golf Club until the fall, when he’ll likely return to his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
In Florida, Trump worked out of a converted bridal suite and charged the Secret Service almost £280 a night for the use of a room, per The Washington Post.
Critics questioned the expense of the New Jersey bathrooms.
“Even now, taxpayers continue to spend many thousands of dollars to facilitate Donald Trump’s businesses,” Noah Bookbinder, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington watchdog, told The Daily Beast.
“He is of course entitled to protection, but from the beginning, it has been about his advancement and convenience, rather than what is good for the country,” Bookbinder added. “Forcing taxpayers to spend all of this money for porta potties at a business that surely has sufficient bathrooms is confounding.”
Three of Trump’s adult children – Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump – were still receiving publicly funded Secret Service protection as of last month.
Protecting the Trump scions cost US taxpayers some £98,000 in the first month following President Joe Biden’s inauguration. Trump extended their security perks for six months after his departure from the White House.
During Trump’s presidency, Secret Service agents were reportedly denied access to bathrooms at the Washington home of the then-president’s daughter and adviser, Ivanka Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, who also served as a White House aide.
Agents had to rent another location nearby for £,2100 per month.