Donald Trump is Rapidly Depleting the Secret Service’s Budget

Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles gave an on-the-record interview to USA Today about the sorry state of the funding for the department he oversees. According to Alles, the Secret Service has already hit federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that are meant to last the entire year. Donald Trump has 42 people under protection, a rise from 31 people under the Obama Administration.

The crux of the issue is Trump’s insistence on spending his weekends somewhere other than the taxpayer funded home on 1600 Pennsylvania Ave—a place he reportedly called a “dump” in front of “eight or nine members and staffers at [Trump] Bedminster.” Simply following the president around is incredibly expensive, let alone finding ways to ensure his safety in buildings that were constructed primarily to entertain, not protect.

The Secret Service has spent $60,000 on golf cart rentals alone at Trump’s courses at Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster. Eric Trump’s business travel to Uruguay cost $100,000 just for hotel rooms. Each trip to Mar-a-Lago costs the taxpayers roughly $3 million. For a president who ran on making government smarter and eliminating government waste, Donald Trump sure does know how to pile up a tab on the taxpayers’ dime.

And, of course, there’s a tweet for this:

We pay for Obama’s travel so he can fundraise millions so Democrats can run on lies. Then we pay for his golf.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2014

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.