During his presidency, Trump’s company received at least $2.5 million in taxpayer funds and $5.6 million in campaign funds, according to a Washington Post investigation — an incomplete accounting because several federal agencies refused to turn over records to the Post. Exorbitant overcharges included $2,600 per night for a house at Mar-a-Lago, $50 per palm for decorative palm trees, $7,700 for a catered dinner for 30 — more than $250 per plate — and more than $1,000 in liquor for a White House staff meeting.
By BlackPressUSA
by the National Urban League’s CEO and President, Marc H. Morial
“The Secret Service’s exorbitant rates and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise serious concerns about the former President’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses.” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney chairs the House Oversight Committee.
It’s unclear whether Donald Trump’s primary motivation for running for president was the opportunity to funnel taxpayer funds into his private business. What is certain is that he took every opportunity to do so – and lied about it along the way. The Trump Organization charged the Secret Service up to $1,185 per night for hotel rooms used by agents protecting Trump family members, according to the House Oversight Committee. That’s five times the government rate and nearly 24 times the $50-per-night rate claimed by the Trump Organization.
During his presidency, Trump visited his own properties over 500 times, and the Trump Organization has continued to bill the Secret Service since he left office and began living in his properties full-time.
The Oversight Committee’s records, which cover more than $1.4 million in self-dealing, are just the tip of Trump’s iceberg of corruption. The cost to the taxpayer of Trump’s family and companies’ tax evasion, deception, and self-dealing is in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
During his presidency, Trump’s company received at least $2.5 million in taxpayer money and $5.6 million in campaign funds, according to a Washington Post investigation — an incomplete accounting because several federal agencies refused to turn over records to the Post. Exorbitant overcharges like $2,600 per night for a house at Mar-a-Lago, $50 per palm for decorative palm trees, $7,700 for a catered dinner for 30 — more than $250 per plate — and more than $1,000 in liquor for a White House staff meeting were among the Trumps’ illegal taxpayer-funded windfall.
Eric Trump, the Trump Organization’s Executive Vice President, falsely claimed that the company was required by law to charge the federal government, and that government employees were only charged “like 50 bucks” per night for hotel rooms. However, Trump’s deception of the American taxpayer did not begin with his election. “He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show,” according to The New York Times. According to records, Mr. Trump assisted his father in taking improper tax deductions worth millions more.
He also assisted in developing a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings on tax returns by hundreds of millions of dollars, significantly lowering the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.”
Ironically, Trump’s fortune – which he largely squandered – was built on taxpayer-funded subsidies and loans of the very type he sought to eliminate as president. Trump’s father, Fred Trump, used FHA loans to build apartment buildings shortly after President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Federal Housing Administration in 1934. During WWII, he constructed over 1,000 apartments for the Navy at taxpayer expense. After the war, he used the G.I. Bill to sell apartments to returning veterans. The elder Trump’s taxpayer-funded fortune financed the major real-estate project that launched Donald Trump’s own career.
As president, Trump proposed the largest reduction in federal housing assistance since the United States Housing Act was passed in 1937. With the brazen bilking of taxpayers revealed this week, Trump has not been accused of breaking any laws. However, presidents, including ex-presidents, should be held to a higher standard than what is “technically legal,” and the work of the House Oversight Committee should result in safeguards to prevent future presidents from abusing the power of the office for personal gain.
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