WASHINGTON — Eric Trump took his Secret Service agents to Trump golf courses in Scotland, as he led trans-Atlantic tours for paying customers. Donald Trump Jr. took his protectors to the Trump hotel in Vancouver, stopping over on hunting trips to Canada.
And Ivanka Trump took her Secret Service detail to the Trump golf club in Bedminster, N.J., again and again — even after she asked other Americans to “please, please’’ stay home during the coronavirus pandemic.
On trips like these, Secret Service agents were there to protect President Trump’s children. But, for the Trump family business, their visits also brought a hidden side benefit: money.
That’s because when Trump’s adult children visited Trump properties, Trump’s company charged the Secret Service for agents to come along. The president’s company billed the US government hundreds, or thousands, of dollars for rooms agents used on each trip, as the agency sometimes booked multiple rooms or a multiroom rental cottage on the property
In this way, Trump’s adult children and their families have caused the US government to spend at least $238,000 at Trump properties so far, according to Secret Service records obtained by The Washington Post.
Government ethics specialists say that nothing is wrong with Trump’s children seeking protection from the Secret Service.
But, they said, the Trump Organization’s decision to charge for the agents’ rooms created a situation in which — just by traveling — Trump’s children could bring taxpayer money to their family’s business.
That, ethics specialists said, could create the appearance that Trump family members were exploiting their publicly funded protection for private financial gain.
“Morally speaking, do they want to profit [from the fact] that their father’s in the White House?’’ said Scott Amey, of the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight. “They could very easily reimburse those expenses, so the federal government and the taxpayer are not on the hook for that tab.’’
The Secret Service and the White House declined to comment for this article, as did Ivanka Trump — the president’s eldest daughter, who left the Trump Organization to work in government. The president’s other adult children — Eric, Donald Jr., and Tiffany — did not respond to requests for comment.
Eric Trump and Donald Jr. are said to run the Trump Organization day to day, although their father still owns it.
In the past, Eric Trump has defended the company’s decision to charge the Secret Service for rooms at Trump properties, saying the law does not allow them to give rooms free. He has not said what law he is referring to. He has said, however, that the company charges the government very low rates — “We charge them cost, effectively housekeeping cost,’’ he said in a Fox News podcast earlier this year.
Neither the White House nor the Trump Organization will say how much the government has paid to Trump’s business since he took office.
Instead, the Post compiled its own accounting, one receipt a time, using public-records requests and a lawsuit. After the release of new records last month, that total now stands at $1.2 million — most of which is related to Trump’s own travel, which includes more than 270 visits to his properties, according to the Post tally.
Previously, records obtained by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington showed that agents had accompanied members of the Trump family on thousands of trips since the president took office.
But until now, it was not clear how much taxpayer revenue Trump’s children’s travel had brought back to their father’s company this way.