Trump Reportedly Charged Secret Service Over $10K in May for Rooms at NJ Golf Club

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A new report has updated numbers on former President Donald Trump’s continued billing of the Secret Service for protecting him at his various properties.

In the months that followed Trump’s departure from the White House, multiple reports have documented how the Secret Service is spending tens of thousands of dollars on rooms and facilities while their security detail guards Trump at Mar-a-Lago and his Bedminster golf club. Washington Post has released a new review of federal spending records, and they found that Trump billed the Secret Service nearly $10,200 for guest rooms in May.

While the agency wouldn’t disclose the exact room rates, the Post’s analysis of the total determines that the rate is around $566 per night for the four-bedroom cottage the Secret Service is renting at Bedminster. This is roughly the same rate with which Trump charged the Secret Service when they stayed at his properties to guard him while he was still president. The Trump Organization and the Secret Service declined to comment.

There’s no law forbidding Trump or his business organization from this practice, though critics have frequently criticized him for the ethics of charging the government lucrative rates for his own protection. The Secret Service also reportedly paid a $3,400 bill from Trump Bedminster before the former president moved up there for the summer months, though it isn’t clear what these expenses were for.

The Post also included a comparison of the expenses the Secret Service incurred while protecting Joe Biden.

Between the years of 2011 and 2017, the agency paid the president $171,600 at a rate of $2,200 per month in order to rent out a cottage on Biden’s property in Delaware. A White House spokesperson says Biden hasn’t charged the Secret Service rent since he became president.