US Secret Service paid Trump’s hotels ‘exorbitant’ rates, House Panel says
The Secret Service paid more than US$1.4 million (S$1.99 million) to former President Donald Trump’s company, renting rooms for as much as US$1,185 a night, almost six times the normal maximum hotel rate the federal government pays for traveling employees, according to documents released on Monday by a House committee.
House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat, called the hotel rates paid by the federal government for Secret Service protection at Trump properties “exorbitant”. She said they raise “significant concerns about the former president’s self-dealing” and may have been “a taxpayer-funded windfall” for Trump properties.
Maloney said her panel has been pressing the Secret Service for a full accounting of taxpayer money spent at Trump properties for more than two years but still hasn’t received complete records.
Maloney said in a letter to Secret Service director Kimberly Cheatle on Monday that the committee found more than 40 instances in which the agency paid Trump properties more than maximum government rate to rent hotel rooms, based on records it has received so far.
The letter cited one instance in which the agency paid US$1,185 a night for rooms when a protective detail accompanied Donald Trump Jr. to the Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago resort in November 2017, though the maximum government rate for the area is $201 a night.
In another, Secret Service agents accompanying Eric Trump, another son of the former president, paid US$1,160 a night for rooms at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, though the maximum government room rate for the city is US$242 a night.
Maloney’s letter said Trump company officials publicly claimed they charged only “minimal fees” for government officials who traveled with the former president and stayed at his properties.
Eric Trump said in an emailed statement on Monday that accommodations for the Secret Service or other government agencies “were either provided at cost, heavily discounted or for free”.
“The company would have been substantially better off if hospitality services were sold to full-paying guests, however, the company did whatever it took to accommodate the agencies to ensure they were able to do their jobs at the highest levels,” Eric Trump said.
The Secret Service has received the committee’s letter about the hotel charges, and “the agency will respond directly to the committee with the requested information”, said spokesman Special Agent Steve Kopek.
In the letter, Maloney said documents the Secret Service has provided so far don’t include all of its stays at Trump properties.
Secret Service room expenses at Mar-a-Lago identified in a 2019 Government Accountability report are missing, and the documents don’t include any foreign Trump properties or travel after September 15, 2021, she said. The agency continues to provide protection for Trump.
During his presidency, Trump reportedly visited properties he owned 547 times, including 145 visits to his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, according to the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
When it came time for the US to host the Group of Seven Summit for world leaders, he also chose one of his properties, the Trump National Doral Miami, though later backtracked under criticism.