White House Reportedly Denies Secret Service Funding Request
Secret Service wanted extra $60M to cover Trump's travel, protection
By Michael Harthorne, Newser Staff
Posted Mar 22, 2017 1:48 PM CDT
newser.com
(NEWSER) – The US Secret Service requested $60 million in additional funding for next year to cover the increased costs of protecting President Trump and his family—and had that request rejected by the White House, the Washington Post reports.
Citing documents and inside sources, the Post says $26.8 million of the funding would have paid for protecting Trump Tower in New York City; $33 million would have gone toward travel by the president, the vice president, "and other visiting heads of state." The Office of Management and Budget is said to have already rejected the funding request. That likely means the Secret Service will have to get the money from elsewhere in its budget, possibly to the detriment of its other duties, including investigating cybercrimes and missing and exploited minors.
So far during his presidency,
Trump has spent most weekends at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. His wife and young son are still living at Trump Tower, and his two adult sons are traveling the world in support of his properties. All receive Secret Service protection. “The Secret Service cannot dictate the lifestyle of the protectee. They have to work around it,” a former Secret Service employee says, noting the Secret Service likely didn't expect Trump to fly to Florida "so often." Meanwhile an unknown amount of the Secret Service's budget could be going to the Trump Organization—for rented space in Trump Tower, for example. |
