Washington budgets an extra $120 million for guarding the Trumps

 

Washington budgets an extra $120 million for guarding the Trumps

By
Bill Van Auken

3 May 2017

The US Congress is preparing to pass a budget that includes an additional $120 million to cover the massive extra costs of guarding US President Donald Trump and his family as it pursue its lavish lifestyle, now directly subsidized by the American people.

The money is part of a stopgap spending agreement that Congress is expected to pass this week, and will cover the skyrocketing costs of guarding the Trumps only for the next five months.

The additional funding is split roughly 50-50 between covering the amount spent by the Secret Service and the reimbursing of local police departments, particularly those of New York City and Palm Beach County, Florida, for the huge expenses they have incurred protecting the Trumps.

The amount going to the Secret Service includes $34 million for “physical protection” of not only Trump but the rest of the “first family.” A growing strain on the agency has resulted from what the New York Times referred to as “the family’s travels, from business trips to Vancouver and Dubai by Mr. Trump’s adult sons to ski weekends in Aspen, Colo., and Whistler, British Colombia by his daughter Ivanka.”

These two ski trips—to five-star resorts beyond the reach of all but the top one percent—entailed major expenses for the Secret Service. Government purchase orders obtained by NBC News show that the agency spent $66,538.42 on the Canadian excursion, $59,654 for hotel expenses for its agents and another $6,884 to secure them “multi-day ski passes.”

Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, the 36-year-old multimillionaire real estate developer Jared Kushner, are both Trump’s closest “presidential advisors” in an administration dominated by…

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