Trump hotels charged taxpayers $1.4M for Secret Service rooms — despite claiming agents stay “free”

Former President Donald Trump’s embattled company, the Trump Organization, billed the United States Secret Service more than a million dollars for at least forty overnight stays at various Trump properties between January of 2017 and September of 2021.

CNN reported on Monday that documents released by the House Oversight Committee reveal “that the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service ‘excessive nightly rates on dozens of trips’ as high as $1,185 per night despite claims by the former President’s company that federal employees traveling with him would stay at those properties ‘for free’ or ‘at cost.'”

Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., wrote a letter to the agency’s leadership stating that “the exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former President’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses.”

Per CNN, “Maloney also notes that her committee has been seeking a full accounting of the Secret Service’s expenditures at Trump-owned properties for more than two years but still has not received complete information on nightly rates or the total amount the agency spent, which ‘appears to exceed $1.4 million of taxpayer money.'”

CNN further explained that the Committee is considering legislation to curtail “presidential self-dealing and profiteering, as well as to curb conflicts of interest by ensuring that future presidents are prevented from exercising undue influence on Secret Service spending.”