A House investigation finds that Trump hotels charged the Secret Service very high prices., The Trump Organization charged the Secret Service “exorbitant rates” – upwards of $1.4 million over four years – to protect the former President and his family at properties they owned, according to documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Monday.
The committee found that the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service “excessive nightly rates on dozens of trips.” These rates were as high as $1,185 per night, even though the former President’s company said that federal employees traveling with him would stay at these properties “for free” or “at cost.”
“The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former President’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses,” the panel’s chairwoman, New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, wrote in a letter to the service’s director on Monday.
When he was president, Trump often went to places like Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, which were run as businesses by his company. Some agents and officers stayed in rooms at these places while he was there. Others rented rooms at hotels nearby.
When Trump was president, it was controversial that he charged his security team to stay at his own properties, and he has kept doing this since leaving office.
Maloney also says that her committee has been trying for more than two years to get a full accounting of how much taxpayer money the Secret Service spent at Trump-owned properties. However, they still don’t have all the information they need about nightly rates or the total amount the agency spent, which “appears to be more than $1.4 million,” says Maloney.
The committee is still trying to get records from the Secret Service. The committee is also looking at possible legislation to stop “presidential self-dealing and profiteering” and “conflicts of interest” by making sure that future presidents can’t have too much control over how much money the Secret Service spends.
Eric Trump said in a statement that “any services provided to the United States Secret Service or other government agencies at Trump-owned hotels were at their request and were either provided at cost, heavily discounted, or for free.”
CNN also has reached out to the Secret Service for comment.
The committee said the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service more than the government rate at least 40 times from January 2017 to September 2021.
One of these times was in March 2017, when the Trump Organization charged $1,160 per night to stay at the Trump hotel in Washington, DC, to protect Eric Trump, who was promoting a golf tournament at the Trump National Golf Club. In March 2017, the per diem rate in Washington, DC, was $242, according to the website of the General Services Administration.
