Eric Trump once insisted that Secret Service stays at Trump Organization properties for free or low cost, with the main charges being only housekeeping fees. But new documents reveal that taxpayers have been charged a whole lot more.
A previous bombshell report by the Washington Post revealed that Mar-a-Lago charged Secret Service $650 per night per room and that his Bedminster golf resort charged them $17,000 every month for a cottage on the grounds even when they are not using it.
Back in October of last year, Eric Trump claimed that Trump properties charge Secret Service a pittance.
“If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free— meaning, like, cost for housekeeping,” he said in a statement. “So everywhere that he goes, if he stays at one of his places, the government actually spends, meaning it saves a fortune because if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they’d be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know we charge them, like $50.”
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Unfortunately for Eric and the Trump Organization, such statements can be checked for accuracy just by obtaining expenditure reports. As it turns out, Public Citizen did just that and discovered that Trump properties charged an additional $157,000 in housekeeping costs to Secret Service since 2017 amounting to $396 per night all paid for by taxpayers.
According to an expert, however, that cost should not even be close to that much.
“Let’s say that you use the best shampoos, the best soaps, the best conditioners, the best coffee,” University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management professor Diego Bufquin told the Post. “At the end of the day, you may have something approaching $100 if you have the top products in the world in your guest room. I’ve never seen variable costs per room sold at $400.”
In short, Trump’s properties are milking taxpayers for far more money than they should be charging, especially since past presidents found room for Secret Service on their properties for no cost. And the price tag could be much higher since Trump refuses to release all expenditure reports, preferring to wait until after the election in November.
Taxpayers have already wasted $133 million paying for Trump’s golf trips, far more than former President Obama spent. Trump has spent over a third of his presidency at his own properties, including this weekend.
The fact that his properties are price-gouging taxpayers through housekeeping costs to line his pockets should enrage the American people.
Featured image via screen capture
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