What Resources Does The Secret Service Have
Why Would a Billionaire Charge the Secret Service $650 a Night?
Six theories for why Donald Trump insists on billing taxpayers
About the author: David A. Graham is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
Concluding year, Eric Trump was asked about Secret Service protection at Trump Organization properties.
"If my father travels, they stay at our properties for free," he said. "So everywhere that he goes, if he stays at one of his places, the government actually spends, meaning information technology saves a fortune considering if they were to go to a hotel across the street, they'd be charging them $500 a night, whereas, y'all know nosotros charge them, like $l."
You lot volition exist stunned to learn that this is non remotely true.
Instead, as the indefatigable David Fahrenthold and three colleagues at The Washington Post chronicle in his latest scoop on the president's business, the Trump Organization charged the Secret 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 course in Bedminster, New Jersey, the Secret Service was billed $17,000 a calendar month for a small cottage, fifty-fifty when the president wasn't present. These are but snapshots. Despite heroic public-records work past the Post, there'due south all the same no complete picture of just what the Trump Organization is charging the Secret Service.
It'due south no longer news per se that the Trump Organisation is profiteering from the presidency. Since Donald Trump refused to divest from his business at the commencement of his term, that'southward been inevitable. There's the massive emoluments scandal of the Trump International Hotel in D.C. In that location are Trump's Irish backdrop, at which he "invited" the vice president to stay, then charged taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. In that location was his shameless choice to hold the G7 summit at Trump Doral—a conclusion so universally reviled that the White Firm apace reversed it. One of the arguments the administration offered for picking Doral was that it would allow savings on security. "He's non making any money off of this, merely like he's non making whatsoever money from working hither," insisted Interim White House Master of Staff Mick Mulvaney. The new Mail service story shows that was well-nigh certainly false.
New or not, the question remains: Why does a billionaire accuse the Secret Service $650 to stay at his holding?
The upshot is not whether taxpayers should pay for presidential protection. They should, unequivocally. The question is about the cost. As the Post notes, other presidents who immune the Cloak-and-dagger Service to use their properties, including both George Bushes and Bill Clinton, didn't charge them. None of those presidents endemic a for-turn a profit business while serving equally president either.
Perchance only Trump knows the answer to why he'due south charging and then much. Only hither are a few theories as to why so rich a man 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 come across who would become through the trouble 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, 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's presidential run was conceived of more every bit a publicity stunt than a serious policy initiative. He set out to make coin, and if winning the ballot wasn't actually part of the plan, that didn't mean it didn't contribute to the ultimate goal.
It's about defiance. And then many of Trump's actions tin can easily be explained equally trolling, or at least as a buss-off. If yous tell him he can't practice something, he'll exercise it. What other explanation is there for announcing, in the midst of an impeachment investigation over abuse of power, that yous'll direct a major international peak to your own resort? Some people will be appalled by the charges, only in that location's nada they tin can do. When you're a president, they let yous practice information technology. You can do anything.
He feels he's entitled. The improvident charges are hypocritical because Trump has made a bully show of donating his presidential salary. He has insisted that the presidency is a money loser for him, depriving him of a chance to make coin elsewhere. Information technology's incommunicable to appraise this claim—Trump hasn't released documents to back information technology up, and his reputation for honesty speaks for itself. It does appear that political backlash against the president has hurt concern at some of his properties, though. Trump may view the money he makes from the Secret Service as the least taxpayers tin practise to mitigate his selfless sacrifices in making America bang-up again, and a meager return for him.
He's not really a billionaire. The Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg was recently asked whether Americans really wanted to watch two billionaires fight on Twitter. "Two billionaires? Who's the second one?" Bloomberg quipped. Questions about Trump's existent net worth have circulated for years. When the journalist Tim O'Brien (now a Bloomberg adviser) reported in 2005 that Trump was worth more than like $250 million, Trump sued him for $5 billion. (The suit was dismissed.) Whenever any investigation has gotten nearly Trump'southward business, he's gone ballistic. Or maybe the better explanation is that …
He's a newspaper billionaire with a greenbacks-period problem. Trump may well be worth billions on paper, but his empire is built on borrowing; he once called himself the king of debt. That means he has to service his loans, for which he needs cash. But several of his businesses seem to be struggling to bring in money, which could mean he struggles to move cash out the door besides. As the Mail previously reported, Doral is one of several backdrop that has seen its income tank. Revenue has as well 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). Withal the Trump Organization is looking to sell the charter on the hotel, for a tape sum. On newspaper that seems illogical: Why would the Trump Organisation sell a holding that's thriving? And if it'south thriving considering of its connection to the president, why would some other operator pay a huge price for value that will dry upward in one case it'southward sold? One answer would be that the Trump Organization is seeking a large cash infusion, so that it tin can continue to service its debts.
Charging $650 a night for Underground Service agents doesn't add upward to the reported $500 million asking price for the D.C. hotel. But Trump has spent roughly a tertiary of his presidency staying at his ain properties, and all the nights in that location start to add together up to a steady stream of cash coming in, from convict buyers. But how much is unclear, though, because neither the Trump Organization nor the government volition tell.
What Resources Does The Secret Service Have,
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/why-does-billionaire-charge-secret-service-650-night/606253/
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