Trump charged the Secret Service $215,000 to use his hotel, and now he wants YOU to pick up the tab

President Donald Trump recently charged the U.S. Secret Service over $200,000 to stay at his hotel in Washington, D.C., and now he is asking taxpayers to pick up the bill even though he isn’t supposed to be profiting from his business while in office.

According to NBC News:

During the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the Trump International Hotel in Washington charged the Secret Service more than $200,000 in taxpayer money, including a bill topping $30,000 for two days of use, according to expense documents obtained by NBC News.

While the nature of the charges were not disclosed in the documents, the hotel five blocks from the White House has become a go-to venue for Trump and his supporters for various events, including a fundraiser the president attended Tuesday for his re-election campaign.

The Trump International Hotel Washington is less than a mile from the White House, raising the issue of why exactly the Secret Service needed to run up such a large bill at a property owned by Trump. Weren’t other hotels in the area able to accommodate the president?

U.S. taxpayers will now have to pay for a $215,000 hotel bill that should never have been run up in the first place.

But Congress may put a stop to Trump’s profiteering, ThinkProgress notes:

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a bill containing a provision that would bar the federal government from doing business with Trump’s properties.

The amendment to a larger appropriations bill was offered by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN). It is unlikely that the Senate will pass a conjoining appropriations bill containing a similar provision and less likely that Trump would sign it. But it continues a longstanding record of concern about how much Trump is profiting off the presidency — Democratic lawmakers sponsored bills that went nowhere in the last Congress, and have repeatedly expressed concern about the use of federal taxpayer dollars in ways that benefit Trump.

There is no doubt that Donald Trump and the Trump Organization are profiting while Trump is in the White House. And since the president refused to place his holdings in a blind trust while he’s in office, we may never know exactly how much of our taxpayer money has gone directly into his pocket.

Featured Image Via CNBC