Mnuchin hiding Trump Secret Service costs until after election

1/8/20
The Trump administration is seeking to delay a Democratic effort to require the Secret Service to disclose how much it spends protecting President Trump and his family when they travel — until after the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the discussions. The issue has emerged as a sticking point in recent weeks as Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and key senators have been negotiating draft legislation to move the Secret Service back to his department, its historic home. Mnuchin has balked at Democratic demands that the bill require the Secret Service to disclose the costs related to the travel of the president and his adult children within 120 days after it is passed, according to people with knowledge of the talks. Mnuchin has agreed to Democrats’ push for a requirement that the Secret Service report its travel expenses but wants such disclosures to begin after the election. In a statement, the Treasury Department confirmed that Mnuchin has been working with Secret Service Director James Murray and congressional committees on a bill to transfer the Secret Service from the Department of Homeland Security to Treasury, but did not address the dispute about the reporting requirement. During the 2016 campaign, Trump promised to “rarely leave the White House” and cut back on what he called wasteful travel by his predecessor, Barack Obama. Since taking office, however, Trump has made more than 50 visits to his properties outside the Washington area, according to a tally kept by The Washington Post. The government spent about $96 million on travel by Obama over eight years, according to documents obtained by the conservative group Judicial Watch. A report by the Government Accountability Office, which serves as the congressional watchdog on federal spending, estimated that Trump’s travel cost $13.6 million in just one month in early 2017.COLOR="#B22222"] If spending continued at that pace, Trump would have exceeded Obama’s total expenses before the end of his first year in office.[/COLOR]

The extensive international business travel and vacations of his grown children, with Secret Service agents in tow, as well as the expense the Secret Service incurs to secure numerous Trump properties, have added to the agency’s financial strain, according to its budget requests. Since their father was elected, Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Jr. have made business trips to overseas locales including Ireland, Scotland, Dubai, Uruguay and India. In 2017, Eric Trump’s visit to a Trump building under construction in Uruguay cost taxpayers $97,000. But exactly how much the frequent travel of Trump and his family has cost taxpayers is unknown. In March 2017, the office sought to tally the cost of Trump’s frequent travel to Mar-a-Lago based on a question from Congress. But for two years, the White House Counsel’s Office failed to answer questions about the costs associated with coordinating travel for the president, according to a GAO report. If the Secret Service’s costs remained constant, that would mean more than $28 million in further spending by the Secret Service alone, and $75 million from the government in all — and just on a small fraction of Trump’s total travel.

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Rogue Valley said:

Mnuchin seeks delay of proposed disclosure of Secret Service spending on presidential travel until after election

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump exit Air Force One on Sunday following a trip to his Mar-a-Lago estate.



When all is said and done, the travel junkets of Donald Trump and his family have cost US taxpayers well in excess of $100 million for the past three years. The Secret Service has not submitted required reports on such expenses in over two years, citing "staff changes" as the reason for its failure. What? The White House refuses to submit reports to the GAO about Trumps travel expenses. Now Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin wants Congress to move the Secret Service from DHS back to the Treasury Department where it originated. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) has added a stipulation to the legislation that the Secret Service has to report on the Trump family costs no later than 120 days after the legislation is passed. Mnuchin is demanding that the report be delivered only after the 2020 election.

Clearly, Mnuchin realizes the Trump family costs to the Secret Service is political kryptonite and is trying his best to hide the astronomical tab from US taxpayers/voters.

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The AntiDonald said:

Imagine that. What don't they try to hide? I want to know why this would be OK with Trump supporters? It's your money he's wasting too.

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Napoleon said:

It probably isn’t, but it’s something the general public accepts because Secret Service protection is mandatory and nobody expects the President to never leave the White House. We already have an inkling, with the SS having spent over $90,000 for golf cart rentals from November 2018 - June 2019. My opinion though is that we should be taking the SS to task for this rather the President.

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Rogue Valley said:

Trump said he'd be "too busy to ever leave the White House".

Not only is Trump wasting taxpayer money by the tens of millions, but his businesses are reaping a fortune from the spending surge by the Secret Service.

If everything is on the up and up, why is Mnuchin demanding that the SS spending tab be held back until after the 2020 election?

Why has the SS not submitted spending reports for the past two years? Why does the WH refuse to supply the GAO with the numbers?

This has a bad Trump smell to it.

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Napoleon said:

I think that’s a somewhat unfair criticism. Trump is almost certainly reaping the benefits of the tendency of the Secret Service to waste money, but I don’t believe any President should be a Whire House prisoner and nobody is making them spend $90,000 on golf carts. I’m all in favor of greater oversight and control of Secret Service spending if that’s what Congress intends to do with the information, but I doubt it.

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Carleen said:

He should be walking on the golf course. It would be good for his health and his supporters should want that to happen.

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Napoleon said:

I think that’s a somewhat unfair criticism. Trump is almost certainly reaping the benefits of the tendency of the Secret Service to waste money, but I don’t believe any President should be a Whire House prisoner and nobody is making them spend $90,000 on golf carts. I’m all in favor of greater oversight and control of Secret Service spending if that’s what Congress intends to do with the information, but I doubt it.

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bongsaway said:

I saw a report this morning. Two hundred and something days at his own resorts and where the prez goes, the secret service goes and we the taxpayer pay the trump organization for every one if his visits to one of his golf properties. I also saw the cost of golf carts, 588K so far and each trip to mar-a-lago, over three million. Blaming the secret service for what trump does and where he drags them is foolish.

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Napoleon said:

The Secret Service is responsible for its own expenditures. What possible legitimate reason can the Secret Service have for spending $588,000 on golf carts when they can easily walk and station the links in advance?

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bongsaway said:

Don't ask me, I'm not spending the money. Do you suggest the next time trump goes golfing the secret service stays home?

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Napoleon said:

The Secret Service is responsible for its own expenditures. What possible legitimate reason can the Secret Service have for spending $588,000 on golf carts when they can easily walk and station the links in advance? There isn’t one and the Secret Service has its own longstanding problems independent of Trump. Remember when they were buying hookers in Colombia?

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Napoleon said:

Im suggesting that they use their legs to walk rather spending hundreds of thousands of dollars riding around in golf carts.

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Napoleon said:

Indeed. And the Secret Service should hoof it and save us $90,000.

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