Donald Trump Accused of Overcharging Secret Service at Hotel: Read Report - Newsweek
By: Aila Slisco (Newsweek)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By Aila Slisco
Former President Donald Trump was "fleecing taxpayers" while in the White House and taking "the Secret Service to the cleaners" by overcharging for Washington, D.C., hotel stays, according to House Democrats.
On Friday, the House Oversight Committee's Democrats released a report on what they called "a glimpse into President Trump's domestic emoluments rackets and pay-to-play schemes." Trump was accused of taking part in an "unconstitutional art of the steal" during his first and so far only term.
The U.S. Constitution's emoluments clause prohibits presidents from profiting from foreign governments and from taking any money from the U.S. government other than the usual presidential salary.
Friday's report accuses Trump of forcing the Secret Service to pay "exorbitant hotel charges" while agents were obliged to stay at the Trump International Hotel in Washington to protect members of Trump's family who were staying at the property. The hotel, which has since been sold and is now the Waldorf Astoria, is located close to the White House.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Atlanta on Tuesday. House Democrats released a report on Friday that accuses the ex-president of "fleecing taxpayers" by overcharging the Secret Service for Trump hotel...Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Atlanta on Tuesday. House Democrats released a report on Friday that accuses the ex-president of "fleecing taxpayers" by overcharging the Secret Service for Trump hotel stays while he was in office. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
"During protective travel, it is necessary for some Secret Service personnel to accompany protectees at all times and in all locations to ensure their safety," a Secret Service spokesperson told Newsweek . "We are required by policy to use government rates when they are available to ensure fiscal responsibility."
Eric Trump, the GOP presidential nominee's son, was quoted in the report as having falsely claimed in 2019 that Secret Service agents stay at Trump properties "for free." Instead, the report alleges, the Secret Service often paid rates that were far higher than others staying at the D.C. hotel on the same nights.
"Throughout the Trump Administration, The Trump Organization attempted to downplay the amount of Secret Service spending at its properties," the report states. "However...[Trump] treated the Secret Service not as a gratis friend and guest but as a 'captive customer,' using the agency as a fabulously wealthy sucker for whom price was no object."
The report also says that the Secret Service "approved a waiver to pay a room rate of $600 when the per diem for that month was $201" so that agents could stay at the D.C. hotel during "an apparent stay by Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, on November 28, 2017."
"Notably, that very night, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., rented out more than 80 rooms at rates less than $600 per room, including a dozen rooms rented to the Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal Co., Ltd.—which is headquartered in China—for $338.85 each," the report continues.
The report goes on to highlight several other expensive Secret Service stays at the Trump hotel. In one case, the agency paid $895 per night during an Eric Trump stay in February 2018, despite the hotel renting out "more than 100 rooms that evening at rates of less than $895—including at least one room rented out for just $150.50."
The report also accuses Trump of committing numerous additional violations of the emoluments clause by charging foreign dignitaries and others to stay at the D.C. hotel and other Trump properties while he was serving as president.
"In some instances, President Trump was fleecing the U.S. government for more money in constitutionally prohibited domestic emoluments than he was shaking down from foreign states and monarchs for constitutionally prohibited foreign emoluments," the report states.
Read the full 57-page report below:
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If this report is accurate, it begs the question when a president and/or former president and or repeat president FLEECES his "protection" team out of GOVERNMENT funding to fill his own aspiring wealth: Who is "zooming" - Who?
Four more years of Crooked Donald fleecing the Secret Service and by extension: The American taxpayers. Y'all ready for this?!
Trump? Ripping people off? The hell ya say... /s
/eye roll/
These are taxpayer funds being paid out to protect Crooked Donald and he overcharges?!! The "small government" people should care about it.
No one should be shocked over these, trump is and always will be a grifter.
But,. . .but, . . to grift from those protecting his 'very' butt and the people he yet continues to pretend to wish to 'serve' again? "Who's zoomin who?" And, it could all 'fire' up again in 2025 if that loser gets a win in a matter of weeks! We can't 'normalize' this crap from Crooked Donald. We can't do it!
Vote a democratic party ticket, everybody!
Crooked Donald is a User-Loser!
And now the grift CONTINUES. . . . Apparently, Donald will interpret his election victory as permission to continue to fleece the 'Service.' And there is little to nothing any of us can do about it. This is ridiculous and outrageous. The nation is weakened by a this man who should have been nipped in the bud years ago.
He still owes millions from his last campaign to cities and police departments where he held his rallies. He doesn't pay his bills and points it out as a place of pride.
Overcharge and underpay is how rich people stay rich. We should never question how the 'Job Creators; operate, we should only praise them. In Trump's case we should both praise him and pray for him.