Does Trump Make Money Off The Secret Service Staying At Maralago
Why Would a Billionaire Accuse the Secret Service $650 a Nighttime?
Half-dozen theories for why Donald Trump insists on billing taxpayers
About the writer: David A. Graham is a staff author at The Atlantic.
Last year, Eric Trump was asked about Secret Service protection at Trump Organization properties.
"If my male parent travels, they stay at our properties for free," he said. "So everywhere that he goes, if he stays at i of his places, the government actually spends, pregnant it saves a fortune because if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they'd exist charging them $500 a night, whereas, y'all know nosotros charge them, like $50."
You lot will be stunned to learn that this is non remotely truthful.
Instead, as the indefatigable David Fahrenthold and iii colleagues at The Washington Post chronicle in his latest scoop on the president's business, the Trump Arrangement charged the Clandestine Service (in other words, the taxpayer) $400 to $650 a night to stay at Mar-a-Lago while guarding the president. At another Trump property, his golf game course in Bedminster, New Jersey, the Secret Service was billed $17,000 a calendar month for a small cottage, even when the president wasn't present. These are just snapshots. Despite heroic public-records work by the Post, in that location's still no complete picture of just what the Trump Organization is charging the Hush-hush Service.
Information technology'southward no longer news per se that the Trump Organisation is profiteering from the presidency. Since Donald Trump refused to divest from his concern at the start of his term, that's been inevitable. There's the massive emoluments scandal of the Trump International Hotel in D.C. There are Trump's Irish properties, at which he "invited" the vice president to stay, and so charged taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. There was his shameless choice to hold the G7 top at Trump Doral—a decision so universally reviled that the White House quickly reversed it. 1 of the arguments the administration offered for picking Doral was that information technology would allow savings on security. "He'due south not making any money off of this, just like he'south not making whatsoever coin from working here," insisted Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. The new Post story shows that was almost certainly faux.
New or non, the question remains: Why does a billionaire accuse the Hush-hush Service $650 to stay at his property?
The upshot is not whether taxpayers should pay for presidential protection. They should, unequivocally. The question is well-nigh the price. As the Post notes, other presidents who allowed the Cloak-and-dagger Service to utilise their properties, including both George Bushes and Bill Clinton, didn't charge them. None of those presidents endemic a for-profit business while serving as president either.
Peradventure but Trump knows the reply to why he's charging so much. Simply here are a few theories as to why so rich a human would gouge his bodyguards and constituents.
The president is simply a penny-pinching cheapo. In 1990, Spy started mailing progressively more minuscule checks to rich people to run across who would get through the problem of cashing them. Only 2 people cashed the smallest checks, for 13 cents: an arms dealer, and Donald Trump. Trump is the kind of guy who, while running a huge real-estate business organisation, routinely stiffed contractors out of four-figure checks. Why wouldn't he squeeze every cent out of this too?
The profiteering is the point (with apologies to my colleague Adam Serwer). Trump'due south presidential run was conceived of more equally a publicity stunt than a serious policy initiative. He gear up out to brand coin, and if winning the election wasn't really part of the plan, that didn't mean information technology didn't contribute to the ultimate goal.
Information technology's about defiance. Then many of Trump's actions tin easily be explained every bit trolling, or at least as a kiss-off. If you tell him he can't exercise something, he'll do it. What other explanation is there for announcing, in the midst of an impeachment investigation over abuse of power, that you'll direct a major international summit to your own resort? Some people will exist appalled by the charges, but in that location'southward nothing they can practice. When yous're a president, they let yous do information technology. You tin practise anything.
He feels he's entitled. The improvident charges are hypocritical considering Trump has made a bang-up evidence of donating his presidential salary. He has insisted that the presidency is a money loser for him, depriving him of a chance to brand money elsewhere. Information technology's impossible to assess this claim—Trump hasn't released documents to back it upwards, and his reputation for honesty speaks for itself. It does appear that political backlash confronting the president has hurt business organisation at some of his properties, though. Trump may view the coin he makes from the Hole-and-corner Service as the to the lowest degree taxpayers can do to mitigate his selfless sacrifices in making America corking once again, and a meager return for him.
He'southward not really a billionaire. The Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg was recently asked whether Americans really wanted to lookout ii billionaires fight on Twitter. "Two billionaires? Who'south the second one?" Bloomberg quipped. Questions about Trump'southward existent net worth take circulated for years. When the announcer Tim O'Brien (now a Bloomberg adviser) reported in 2005 that Trump was worth more than similar $250 million, Trump sued him for $5 billion. (The conform was dismissed.) Whenever whatever investigation has gotten most Trump'due south business, he's gone ballistic. Or possibly the better explanation is that …
He's a paper billionaire with a greenbacks-flow trouble. Trump may well be worth billions on paper, but his empire is built on borrowing; he once called himself the rex of debt. That means he has to service his loans, for which he needs greenbacks. But several of his businesses seem to be struggling to bring in money, which could hateful he struggles to move greenbacks out the door too. As the Mail service previously reported, Doral is one of several backdrop that has seen its income tank. Revenue has also fallen at some of his hotels.
One of the few hotels that seems to be thriving is the Trump International Hotel in D.C. (though even information technology has its own struggles). Yet the Trump Organization is looking to sell the lease on the hotel, for a record sum. On paper that seems illogical: Why would the Trump Organization sell a property that's thriving? And if it's thriving because of its connection to the president, why would another operator pay a huge price for value that will dry up once it's sold? I answer would be that the Trump System is seeking a large cash infusion, so that it can continue to service its debts.
Charging $650 a night for Clandestine Service agents doesn't add up to the reported $500 million request price for the D.C. hotel. But Trump has spent roughly a third of his presidency staying at his own properties, and all the nights there kickoff to add together up to a steady stream of cash coming in, from captive buyers. Just how much is unclear, though, because neither the Trump Organisation nor the government will tell.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/why-does-billionaire-charge-secret-service-650-night/606253/
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