Donald Trump’s worsening cash grab

| 6:00 pm EDT July 9, 2021
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Trump supporters love bragging that he donated his presidential salary, yet he made a fortune on the deal, including hundreds of millions gouging taxpayers for use of his properties. Now he’s drawing his $219K annual pension, even though he’s not legally required to, as he was his salary.

Fortunately, Trump can no longer gouge us through his properties now as much as he did as President, but he’s charging the Secret Service $566.62/night to stay at Trump Bedminster. The rate he’s charging them at Mar-a-Lago is unknown, but it was as much as $650/night in 2017, despite the fact that Eric Trump claimed the 2019 nightly rate was “like fifty bucks.” If we round out the average nightly rate he’s charging them to a $600 guesstimate, that’s $219,000/year, and there’s no telling what he’s charging them for food, drink and other necessities. (He has infamously charged us $3 for a glass of tap water).

Future rates will likely increase the closer Trump gets to prison and the higher his attorneys’ fees become. Who knows how SS protection will work in prison, but it would serve him right if all his properties not seized by the IRS are confiscated under RICO, so Melania and Barron can’t continue the family tradition.

Trump’s six-month extension of SS for his adult children and their families reportedly cost us $140K the first month — just for travel and hotels. Six months at that rate would be $840,000. That’s a lot, but the SS expenses I’ve guesstimated are based on limited info and actually quite conservative.

For example, during Trump’s first four trips to Mar-a-Lago in 2017, the SS alone spent $1.3 million on each visit. In 2017, they asked Congress for $60 million to cover Trump family trips in 2018. Six months of SS expenses protecting Trump’s extended family is more likely in the millions as well.

According to citizensforethics.org, the SS had security problems at some of Trump’s properties, so we can safely assume we’ve also paid a bundle to make Trump’s and his families’ properties secure. The actual cost of Secret Service and their security vehicles (not including expenses) is classified.