Outrage Grows As Trump Costs Florida Taxpayers $60,000 A Day When He Visits His Private Club

Trump costs taxpayers in Florida $60,000 a day every time he visits his private club, and local officials want the president to pay the extra costs that come with his vacations.

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NBC News reported:
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told NBC that each day President Trump spends in Mar-a-Lago costs his department $60,000.

County Commissioner Dave Kerner noted Bradshaw’s cost evaluations, making the point that with Trump governing from Palm Beach County, “it becomes a very significant financial burden on the taxpayers” here.

“While he may treat it like it’s the Southern White House, it’s not,” Kerner said, worrying about skyrocketing costs that the county hadn’t budgeted for. Kerner hopes for reimbursement from the federal government to offset the burgeoning bill of Trump’s visits to the area and has even suggested turning Mar-a-Lago into a special taxing district that would impose a levy on the resort to pay the president’s security costs.

Trump has spent 21 days of his presidency at his private club, which means that he has already cost local taxpayers millions of dollars in increased security costs. The U.S. Coast Guard is warning that the sea security costs that come with Trump’s weekend getaways are also mounting. According to the Coast Guard, helicopter and boat patrols cost $214,400 a day when Trump is at Mar-a-Lago. If Trump maintains his current schedule, he will cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in Coast Guard security costs over his four-year term.

It is interesting that Florida lawmakers aren’t buying Trump’s claim that his private club is a winter White House. The idea of creating a special tax zone around Trump’s resort is a good one because the odds are that conservatives in Congress who don’t want to spend a dime on anything are going to throw a fit if they are asked to spend tens of millions of dollars on Trump’s vacations. The odds are that the far right House conservatives will refuse to pay, and attempt to pass the costs on to state and local governments.

If Democrats win back any part or all of Congress, it is definite that they will investigate and seek to limit Trump’s vacation spending.

Trump’s mooching days could be numbered. If the president wants to spend his weekends in Florida, then he, not the taxpayers, should have to pay for it.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association