Democrats seek to force Secret Service to divulge cost of protecting Trump and family during travel
Democrats, intent on finding a way to obtain Secret Service costs for protecting President Trump and his family during their travels over the past three years, are demanding the agency itself divulge the cost.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, requested on Wednesday that the Secret Service release how many millions of dollars it has incurred guarding Trump and his family on domestic and international travel since January 2017.
"In order to assess the agency’s forthcoming Fiscal Year 2021 budget request, I am seeking information on the expenses your office has incurred to support the travel of President Trump and his family throughout his time in office," the Mississippi lawmaker wrote in a letter to Secret Service Director James Murray.
Thompson's request comes in the middle of a fight between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration over who will run the organization. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Republican senators hope to pass a bill that would move the Secret Service, now under the Department of Homeland Security, back to the Treasury Department, where it was housed prior to the creation of the DHS after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Democrats asked that the bill mandate within 120 days of its passage that the Secret Service share information on the cost of Trump's trips.
Thompson said no full analysis or total has been released by the Trump administration. Last January, the Government Accountability Office released some numbers on the costs of individual trips. The Secret Service spent $1.6 million on four trips Trump took to his Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida, in his first two months in office. It spent $390,000 protecting his family during three vacations abroad in January and February 2017.
"Although GAO has provided analysis on this topic, its review was focused on a select number of individual trips," Thompson said. "The large number of protectees in the Trump family and their frequency of travel has already strained the Secret Service’s budget, making it important that this Committee fully understand the resources required of the Secret Service to protect the First Family."
Thompson asked the Secret Service, as a congressional request apart from the bill, to provide information on all trips over the past 36 months, including the date, location, expenses by category, and costs incurred by Trump-owned properties, by Feb. 3.
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