Trump overcharged Secret Service by 300% for accommodations at his hotels

Story by George Chidi. October 19, 2024.

  • Overcharging Secret Service: Trump’s hotels charged the Secret Service up to 300% more than the authorized government rate, contradicting claims that agents stayed for free.
  • Foreign Payments: Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from 20 countries during his presidency.
  • Emoluments Clause: Trump faced accusations of violating the emoluments clause, but the Supreme Court dismissed the cases after he left office.
  • Hotel Sale: Trump sold the lease on his D.C. hotel in 2022, which reopened as a Waldorf Astoria in 2023.

Describing the former US president’s term in office as “the world’s greatest get-rich-quick scheme”, the report’s authors referred to documents obtained by subpoenas of the Mazars firm, Trump’s accountants, citing guest logs for Trump International hotel in Washington, DC, between September 2017 and August 2018. The hotel “charged as much as 300% or more above the authorized government per diem”, for Secret Service hotel rooms, according to the report.

It added: “Not only did former President Trump’s D.C. hotel routinely charge the Secret Service more than the government rate, it frequently charged the Secret Service more than it did other patrons, including members of a foreign royal family and a Chinese business interest.”

Eric Trump has said previously that the Trump organization let Secret Service agents “stay at our properties for free”>^11]. But the report calls that assertion into question, noting that the agency was charged “far in excess of approved government per diem rates and even many times the rates charged to hundreds of other patrons—including some of the rooms rented by the Qatari royal family and Chinese business interests—for rooms used by agents protecting members of the Trump family.”