Turns out Donald Trump stole money from the military too

| 3:00 pm EDT March 27, 2022
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The Defense Department explains on its Web site that “[y]our military is an all-volunteer force that serves to protect our security and way of life.” The U.S. Constitution, in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1, establishes that “[t]he President shall be Commander in Chief” of the military. Although the President’s precise role has been debated, it should be obvious that it’s not to bilk the military for personal gain.

Apparently, it’s not so obvious to the former guy, as newly released government documents reveal that Donald Trump did just that. Over two years ago, The Washington Post requested documents from the U.S. military showing what it spent on Trump. This week, the Post finally received a package of 237 pages of documents detailing Trump expenditures through early 2020. As with most things Trump, the revelations are both shocking and pretty much as expected.

Over Trump’s first three years in office, the military forked over nearly $150,000 to various Trump properties. The effect was that “government spending became a stable source of income,” especially “[a]s some of those properties struggled during the coronavirus pandemic,” according to the Post. This figure is on top of the more than $1.1 million Trump charged the Secret Service.

The documents included invoices for lodging at Trump’s Bedminster golf club, Mar-a-Lago, his Las Vegas hotel, and his Doonbeg, Ireland golf resort. Despite Eric Trump claiming in 2019, “If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free,” the military sometimes paid far more than federal officials are normally allowed for government travel. For example, the military paid $700 per night at the Bedminster, ringing up more than $30,000 in just May and June of 2017.

America deserves better than a President who uses the government as his piggy bank and looks at brave men and women risking their lives for this country only to see dollar signs. Fortunately, the 2020 election put Joe Biden in the White House and turned both chambers of Congress blue. We must now focus on getting out the vote in November’s midterms so that a new blue wave can flush Trumpism down the toilet.