Trump gave six months extra Secret Service protection to his kids, three officials. It cost ...

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Politics

Trump gave six months extra Secret Service protection to his kids, three officials. It cost taxpayers $1.7 million.

By David A. Fahrenthold and Carol D. Leonnig
Today at 6:00 a.m. EDT

In June, former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin visited Israel to scout investments for his new company, then flew to Qatar for a conference. At the time, Mnuchin had been out of office for five months.

But, because of an order given by President Donald Trump, he was still entitled to protection by Secret Service agents. As agents followed Mnuchin across the Middle East, the U.S. government paid up to $3,000 each for their plane tickets, and $11,000 for rooms at Qatar’s luxe St. Regis Doha, according to government spending records.

In all, the records show U.S. taxpayers spent more than $52,000 to guard a multimillionaire on a business trip.

These payments were among $1.7 million in additional government spending triggered by Trump’s highly unusual order — which awarded six extra months of Secret Service protection for his four adult children and three top administration officials — according to a Washington Post analysis of new spending documents.

That $1.7 million in extra spending is still tiny in comparison to the Secret Service’s $2.4 billion budget.

But, as the records show, Trump’s order required the Secret Service to devote agents and money to an unexpected set of people: wealthy adults, with no role in government, whom the agents trailed to ski vacations, weekend houses, a resort in Cabo San Lucas, and business trips abroad.

{snip}

By David Fahrenthold
David A. Fahrenthold is a reporter covering the Trump family and its business interests. He has been at The Washington Post since 2000, and previously covered Congress, the federal bureaucracy, the environment and the D.C. police. Twitter https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

By Carol D. Leonnig
Carol Leonnig is an investigative reporter at The Washington Post, where she has worked since 2000. She won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for her work on security failures and misconduct inside the Secret Service. Twitter https://twitter.com/CarolLeonnig

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-secret-service-children-cost-mnuchin/2021/09/16/b9aa6348-156a-11ec-a5e5-ceecb895922f_story.html

[LiberalFighter]

1. Reporters hould have used the word given instead of entitled.

[maxsolomon]

2. Outrage fatigue.

If I never hear Mnuchin's name again it will be a blessing.

[seta1950]

3. This is taxpayer money

Hard earned, AG should look into this

[AZLD4Candidate]

5. That's not going to happen and you know it

[smb]

4. I'm In Favor Of Providing Cheato And His Spawn Maximum Security Accomodations For Life nt

[Mr. Evil]

6. I like the way you think.

[calimary]

9. I'd certainly go for that.

And liquidate his properties to pay back the taxpayers who’ve been fleeced by these spoiled, greedy, opportunistic-infection trump fly-by-nights.

[ancianita]

7. It's part of the kleptocracy model. It's what Republican kleptocracy looks like.

[Bev54]

8. Now we are finding out that he also allowed his family members limousine service

as well as secret service. What a pile of grifters. I wish there was a way for the government to retrieve those funds from them.

[Harker]

10. I want my money back. n/t

[TxGuitar]

11. Grifters gonna grift. NT

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

12. Can Biden undo this insanity with an EO?

Or can the taxpayers just send TFG a bill and then foreclose on his properties?

[riversedge]

13. That is always how Trump operates--on the other persons dime!!

[SouthernDem4ever]

14. I am willing to spend a few more dollars

on their jail cells