Proof that Donald Trump was only taking golf trips to bilk money from the Secret Service
At the start of Donald Trump’s presidency, the Secret Service set up full-time ops at his two primary private residences, Trump Tower in New York and Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, under the assumption that he would be traveling to them both on a regular basis. He even left his wife and child at Trump Tower, forcing the Service to remain there full-time and rent space from him. But once he got into office, Trump instead decided to go in a different direction.
For nearly every weekend of the first several months of his presidency, Trump visited one or another of his own private golf resorts. He frequently spent weekends at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey. At other times he went to his golf resort in Virginia. But he very rarely went to Mar-a-Lago, despite owning multiple golf courses nearby. And he never went to Trump Tower, despite it being his primary residence and proudest piece of real estate. Now we know why.
Late last month it was revealed that Trump’s numerous trips and spread-out residency had already used up the entire Secret Service budget for the year (link). It’s not difficult to follow the money. Trump was able to charge the Service monthly fees for the facilities it was using at Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago, even though he was almost never there. He was also able to simultaneously bilk the Service for the one-off costs of space and facilities during each of his visits to his various golf resorts. Now his subsequent actions prove that this was indeed nothing more than a con, and the golf was secondary.
At this point the Secret Service has no further budget for the rest of the year. Congress can and will approve additional funding to make sure agents get paid and can do their jobs. But now that Congress is paying particularly close attention to how the Secret Service budget is being spent, Donald Trump has suddenly decided he no longer likes golf. He now spends his weekends at the White House, because there’s no money to be made from his golfing trips.
Instead, Donald Trump now regularly travels the country for campaign rallies so he can fundraise for a 2020 reelection bid that exists in name only. He’s already been caught spending those “reelection” funds to pay his son’s legal bills. Now that there’s no more money for Trump to bilk from the Secret Service, he’s moved on to a new kind of grift. His love of golf, it seems, was nothing more than a for-profit scam.
