A new House Oversight Committee Democratic report reveals that Trump treated the Secret Service like an ATM and charged them rates for rooms far above the legal limit while he was president.
The report found that Trump and family lied. The Secret Service did not stay at his properties for free, but were instead charged rates that were many times higher that the legal per diem limit:
Then-President Trump turned the U.S. Secret Service into an ATM for his personal enrichment, frequently charging the agency room rates far above approved government per diem rates and far above the rates charged to hundreds of other private patrons when Secret Service agents were protecting members of the Trump family. For example:
- On November 8, 2017, when Donald Trump Jr. stayed at former President Trump’s D.C. hotel, the Secret Service under President Trump approved a room rate of $1,185—more than five times the approved government per diem rate of $201. The room records provided to the Committee by Mazars show that the Secret Service was indeed charged the astounding rate of $1,185 for two rooms that evening. Amazingly, that same night, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., rented out more than 200 rooms to private parties at just $125 or $170 each.
- On November 28, 2017, in conjunction with an apparent stay by Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, the Secret Service approved a waiver for a room rate of $600 when the official per diem for that month was just $201. The room records Mazars produced to the Committee show that, on that very night, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. rented out more than 80 rooms at rates less than $600 per room, including renting a dozen rooms to the Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal Co., Ltd.—a private corporation headquartered in China—for $338.85 each.
During a February 22, 2018, visit by Eric Trump, then-President Trump’s D.C. hotel charged the Secret Service $895 for at least one room—more than four times the per diem rate of $201. That same night, four of the rooms charged at the D.C. hotel that evening to the “Sheikh Al Thani Family Extended Stay”—Al Thani being the name of the royal family of Qatar—were charged at rates less than $895. As such, Trump charged the taxpayers considerably more for some of his unlawful domestic emoluments that night than he charged foreign royals for some of his unlawful foreign emoluments.
The report also found that Trump’s sons who were not in the administration were not charged for their rooms at the DC hotel, but Jared and Ivanka Trump were charged as members of the Trump administration and the taxpayers footed the bill.
Trump also, according the report ran what could be a pay to play operation out of the hotel where foreign governments, job seekers, and people seeking pardons all funneled money to Trump through the DC hotel.
The Oversight Democrats point out that Trump was able to exploit weaknesses in anti-corruption laws to get away with this theft.
Donald Trump and his family stole potentially millions of dollars from taxpayers by constantly staying at properties that they owned and overcharging the government.
The report examines the records of one Trump property for 11 months.
What Trump did should be viewed as criminal and it is another reason why the president can’t be sent back to the White House.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
