The Trump family’s statements about Secret Service expenses have raised questions, with some pointing out discrepancies that suggest the information might not align with established facts. In October 2019, Eric Trump insisted to Yahoo! Finance that hosting the G-7 Summit at the Trump National Doral Miami in Florida would save taxpayers a fortune. He claimed the security bill alone would result in drastically reduced costs.
“If my father travels, [security staff] stay at our properties for free,” Eric said. “So everywhere that he goes, if he stays at one of his places, the government actually spends, meaning it saves a fortune because if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they’d be charging them $500 a night, whereas, you know we charge them, like $50,” he added.
Hold that thought, Eric. According to official expense records obtained by Congress and shared by The Washington Post, the Trump family made serious bank on security staff hotel fees, charging as much as five times more for accommodation than government-approved rates. The records show that agents were sometimes billed $1,185 per night for their Washington DC hotel rooms, compared to the typical rate of around $195 to $240. US taxpayers doled out in the region of $1.4 million for government staff to stay at Trump properties while protecting Donald and his family.
