Is Anyone Raising The Question of Why Is The Secret Service Protecting an Entire Private Golf Course?

[TomCADem]

When President Obama played golf, he would play on courses on military bases that are easier to secure, but Trump just has to be able to show up on a whim at a private course where there is no way to block out sight lines that is viewable from the road. You know all those photographs of Trump hacking through a golf course? That is someone who has a line of sight.

What is next? Perhaps Trump will develop a habit for grabbing an impromptu hot dog on a stick at the nearby mall, and require the secret service to suddenly lock down the mall whenever he has a craving, because he has no sense of the incredible imposition that his taste for excess has on American taxpayers.

We really should have an accounting regarding how much the Secret Service spent protecting Trump and his family versus any other President, particularly given his taste for holding court at Maro Lago among his rich fans during his Presidency.

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/17/1129491352/trump-hotels-overcharged-secret-service-agents

Trump hotels charged his Secret Service protectors 'exorbitant' rates

The Trump Organization appears to have overcharged the Secret Service for stays at Trump-owned properties by agents protecting the then-president. The charges exceeded the government's approved rate, according to the House Oversight Committee, which says Secret Service records show payments totaling over $1.4 million.

"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," Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney wrote in a letter to Kimberly Cheatle, the service's director.

According to the documents, the Secret Service was charged as much as $1,185 per room per night, nearly five times the government rate, which is set by the General Services Administration.

[pat_k]

1. While in office, down time in Mar-a-Lago instead of Camp David certainly cost a few fortunes.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-costs-secret-protect-trump-144145622.html

In Trump’s first four trips to Mar-a-Lago in 2017, the Secret Service alone spent about $1.3 million on each visit, and for just one month in 2017, Trump’s travel costs totaled $13.6 million, including expenditures by the Secret Service, the Department of Defense and the cost of renting space and equipment, The Post notes, adding that Trump had made 22 more trips to Mar-a-Lago since then, at a cost of an additional $28 million if the Secret Service’s costs remained constant.

In 2017, the Secret Service asked Congress for an additional $60 million for its 2018 budget to cover presidential travel, according to The Post.

I don't have costs for other presidents but I think it is pretty clear that his "needs" were unprecedented and I am guessing the costs were unprecedented.

As far as candidates. I can't think of another candidate that spent all their time in hotels and resorts they owned and expected the secret service to pay exorbitant rates to stay with them.

As usual, Trump is a law unto himself and Congress hasn't had the will to do anything to curb costs associated being at the complete mercy of protectee whims.