Secret service charged excessive rates to stay at Trump properties while on duty (includes video story)

The House Oversight Committee released documents on Monday that reveal the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service excessive rates that totaled more than $1.4 million in taxpayer money over four years. 

Former president Donald Trump would frequently travel to properties owned by the Trump Organization during his presidency, including Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey. During dozens of trips, the Secret Service was charged as much as $1,185 per night to stay on Trump-owned property. 

The panel’s chairwoman, New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney, in a letter to the Secret Service director, said, “The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former President’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses.”

The committee has been seeking a full accounting of the Secret Service’s expenditures at Trump-owned properties for more than two years but has not been able to obtain full information on nightly rates or the total amount spent by the agency.

Eric Trump responded in a statement saying, “Any services rendered to the United States Secret Service or other government agencies” at Trump-owned hotels “were at their request and were either provided at cost, heavily discounted or for free.”

Victoria Duran is an FIU student majoring in Marketing and Interactive+Digital Media at Florida International University. She is passionate, creative, and hopes to pursue a career in the marketing industry.