Secret Service costs for Trump family continue to soar

With Eric Trumps trip to the UK and Ireland, the international hotel and car rental costs for the Secret Service agents who protect him and his brother Donald Trump Jr. have topped $190,000 since January 1, a CBS News report said.

All of those bills are paid by taxpayers, according to the report published on Friday.

Documents for Eric Trump's trip this week to Dublin show that $4,029 was spent on limousines for his visit and $11,261 to cover the hotel costs of the Secret Service agents who protect him.

However, these purchase orders do not include airfare costs for Secret Service agents who traditionally conduct advance trips to the location in preparation for visits by protectees.

It also does not include the cost of the salaries paid to the agents who protect members of the President's family.

Eric Trump's trip to the UK was his fifth international trip since the start of 2017. He went to Uruguay and the Dominican Republic on his own and accompanied his brother Donald Trump Jr. on his trips to Dubai and Vancouver.

The trips by President Donald Trump's sons are to promote the family-branded properties in those countries, the CBS News report said.

"The Trump family's frequent travel to international destinations purely to promote the family business is burning through taxpayer dollars at an unprecedented rate and stretching the Secret Service increasingly thin," said Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The Government Accountability Office has begun work on a report that will look at the cost to taxpayers of travel by President Trump's family.

President Trump's trips on Air Force One to his Mar-a-Lago mansion in Florida have cost taxpayers an estimated $700,000 for each round trip, CBS News has estimated, based on a previous Government Accountabilty Office report, that each presidential trip to Mar-a-Lago costs about $3 million.

One purchase order showed the US Secret Service has spent $35,185 on golf cart rentals "for POTUS (President of the US) visit" in Palm Beach county, Florida since Donlad Trump's inauguration on January 20.

--IANS

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