Donald Trump has charged the Secret Service more than $50,000 for lodging at his own properties just since he left the White House, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The former president charged the agency more than $10,000 for lodging at his New Jersey golf resort in Bedminster during his stay in May alone, according to the Post. Agents plan to stay throughout July.
The figures were based on records released by the Secret Service in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the newspaper.
The latest figures from Trump’s spring move to Bedminster revealed he’s continuing a “habit” that began in the first days of his presidency: “Charging rent to the agency that protects his life,” the Post noted.
The Bedminster information from the Secret Service did not provide a per-night rate, but the Post deduced from the total that the former president was socking the Secret Service with a nightly bill of $566.64 for a four-bedroom “cottage” on the property so agents could be nearby. That charge would account for the 18 days Trump stayed at Bedminster in May, the Post noted.
No law prevents Trump from charging the Secret Service – and there are no caps on what he can charge, the Post reported. But it’s highly unusual for a former president to earn income from Secret Service charges.
The Post could find only one other individual under Secret Service protection who had charged the agency rent: Joe Biden. When he was vice president, Biden charged the Secret Service $2,200 a month (which would cover just four days at Bedminster) to use a cottage on his property in Delaware.
Biden collected a total of $171,600 from 2011 to 2017, the newspaper reported. He hasn’t collected any since becoming president. Trump had already collected Biden’s lifetime total by his third month as ex-president, the Post reported.
Eric Trump claimed in an interview in 2019 that the Trump businesses charged the Secret Service “like 50 bucks a night.”
Trump didn’t respond to the Post to comment on the report.
The former president extended Secret Service protection to 13 family members and at least three of his top appointees for an additional six months after his term expired.
Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump cost the Secret Service $140,000 in just the first 30 days after Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, according to an analysis by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. And that doesn’t include charges at Trump properties in Bedminster, Palm Beach, Florida, and Briarcliff, New York, the watchdog noted.
Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, a multimillionaire, has taken the Secret Service along with him on several international trips, costing taxpayers about $75,000 in hotel bills alone, The Daily Beast has reported.