Taxpayers Pay For Trump’s Sons to Travel the World on Business Deals

New information gathered from the U.S. Secret Service under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) shows that Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are costing taxpayers by traveling the world on business trips.

“Taxpayers spent nearly $250,000 on hotels, airfare and other costs for Secret Service protection for Eric and Donald Trump Jr., 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 for two overseas trips by Eric and Donald Trump Jr. in which they visited Trump family businesses.”

It is not cheap to globetrot with Secret Service protection, and every time the Trumps go galavanting around the world the taxpayers are picking up the tab.

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Traveling abroad for business trips and meetings is not unusual. In recent years presidents and their families have come under much more public scrutiny for the cost of their travel at taxpayer expense. Due to the Trump’s far-flung business interests their travel costs have been much higher than the costs for previous presidents’ families.

The costs are high because even though all of Eric and Don Jr.’s travel is for their private businesses, the U.S. government pays for all of the costs of the secret service personnel who travel with them. The money is spent on food, airfare, cab fare and hotels.

Trump family spending is the highest of any family in White House history.

In Donald Trump’s first 80 days in office he spent over $20 million primarily due to his many trips to visit his private club, Mar-a-Lago, in Florida. Trump is projected to far outspend President Obama in travel in his first four years of his presidency, setting new records for presidential excess.

Eric and Don Jr. flew to Dubai last year to open a Trump-branded golf club. That trip cost the U.S. taxpayers more than $200,000, which included  $125,000 for airfare, $75,000 for hotel rooms and over $15,000 for “other expenses” such as cell phones, car service and other transportation.

Another private trip for Trump’s sons in 2018 cost taxpayers $73,000 in Secret Service when they went to Dubai so they could attend the wedding of the daughter of one of their business partners.

Eric and Don Jr. have also traveled to the Dominican Republic to relaunch a failed Trump-branded resort project and to Vancouver and Uruguay pursuing business deals. The total costs to the U.S. of all Trump private business travel has not been calculated, but we do know that it is excessive and that the U.S. taxpayers once again are getting ripped off by Donald Trump and his family.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.