Trump’s Extra Secret Service Protection For Allies, Kids Cost Taxpayers $1.7 Million: Report

Former President Donald Trump’s order to extend Secret Service protection to key allies and all of his adult children cost taxpayers $1.7 million, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Secret Service protection once a president is out of office is typically provided for the former president and first lady for life, and for any children until they reach age 16.

But Trump ordered the protection provided for six months after he left office for all four of his adult children and their spouses. He also extended protection to former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former national security adviser Robert O’Brien.

Secret Service agents racked up costs trailing Trump’s wealthy adult children at “ski vacations, weekend houses, a resort in Cabo San Lucas, and business trips abroad,” the Post noted.

“Who wouldn’t enjoy continuing their free limo service and easy access to restaurant tables?” asked Jim Helminski, a former Secret Service executive. “Even if there was a credible risk to family and associates of Trump, these people are now private citizens who can afford to hire … private security firms for their personal protection,” he told the Post.

The most jaw-dropping expenditures were the $52,000 spent to guard Mnuchin, a multimillionaire, during a trip in June to Israel to scout new business opportunities, followed by a trip to a conference in Qatar. Costs included $11,000 for agents’ rooms at Qatar’s St. Regis Doha, according to government spending records, the Post reported. 

Mnuchin’s total Secret Service tab hit $479,000, and included $114,000 for rooms at a W Hotel in Los Angeles, Vanity Fair noted.

Mnuchin told the newspaper that he didn’t ask for the extra protection. But he was free to turn it down, which he didn’t, the Post noted.

No one else covered by extra protection responded to the Post’s requests for comment. 

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