Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:44 pm
Long long ago when kings roamed the West, people feared the royal court’s visit. The king and his retinue would eat his hosts out of hearth and home and all would suffer as a result. Those days have returned, with New York City having spent a whopping $35 million to protect Trump since the election.
Remember when Republicans were always complaining about Obama vacations? Now they have something else to complain about, not that they’ve stopped complaining about Obama.
New York Police Department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism John Miller complained the city got back only $7 million, saying, “it’s not fair to New York City because … this is an unfunded federal mandate.”
The New York Post earlier reported that “The Secret Service is eyeing two contiguous floors for over 250 agents and cops” at Trump Tower, using two entire floors of the building complete with a 24/7 command post.
Obviously, with the Obama’s being residents solely of the White House when not on vacation, such additional precautions and expensives are not required.
And New York City isn’t alone. Trump is a glowering presence on Palm Beach, Florida, as well. The Hill reports,
“Florida members of Congress have asked the Justice and Homeland Security departments to reimburse Palm Beach County for hundreds of thousands of dollars spent protecting President-elect Donald Trump when he stays at his Mar-a-Lago resort.”
Trump spent four very expensive days there over Thanksgiving, and he plans to further inflict himself on the locals, who already anted up $250K for that visit, for another ten days over the holidays.
So Senators Bill Nelson (D); Marco Rubio (R); and Reps. Alcee Hastings (D), Ted Deutch (D), Lois Frankel (D), and Patrick Murphy (D) have joined forces to write to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to ask “the agencies to use funds allocated by the continuing resolution Congress passed last month to repay the county for its expenses.”
Trump has already signaled a wish to spend a little time as possible in the White House doing actual work on behalf of the American people and this means problems for those caught in his path. As Miller explained,
“We really won’t be able to gauge the long-term costs…until we know: Is he coming home every weekend? Is he stopping in on weeknights? Is he taking vacations here?”
And Trump has quite the retinue, including not only his Secret Service detail but his own private security goons. Attempts by both Politico and Salon to find out who Trump plans to bill for this extra security have been ignored by the transition team.
As we know already, however, Trump likes to use other peoples’ money to pay for things, so it is unlikely he plans to pick up the bill for anything he isn’t forced to. Much depends on the Republican-controlled Congress. And he’s already proven you can make a profit off running for president.
The good news is, Republicans aren’t happy either. The bad news is, even if Congress appropriates the money, the taxpayers are still footing the bill for Trump’s lavish, dare we say royal, lifestyle.
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