Members Only, But Leave Your Wallet At The Gate
(Photo: Wikimedia)
Just 84 days into his presidency,* Donald Trump has spent a quarter of that time at his private Palm Beach, Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, on the taxpayer dime, with the profits going directly into his pockets.
The meter is running again now.
Trump started this weekend early by arriving on Thursday and is playing golf while the rest of the world worries about the prospect of his starting World War III after he threatened North Korea on Twitter earlier in the week.
You'll recall that Trump launched his first military attack from Mar-a-Lago over dinner as guests milled around him with their camera phones, and just last week he ordered airstrikes in Syria as he was partaking of a "beautiful chocolate cake" that was more memorable to him than which country he was bombing at the time.
So now, as a potential conflict with another rogue tyrant with daddy issues looms, Trump, who normally brings all but his entire Administration along with him because profits, is winging it in Palm Beach without any of his top aides to "advise him."
What could possibly go wrong?
While threatening to take away your health care, Social Security, and potentially unleashing some of the most severe budget cuts in recent memory, Trump continues to profit off the taxpayer in unprecedented fashion, after he said the country would have to tighten their belts and "do more with less," because the Trump family lifestyle isn't going to pay for itself, don't you know?
If you'd like to see the Mar-a-Lago costs in comparison to those cuts in real time, you can do so here at "Is Trump At Mar-a-Lago?" a website by the Center For American Progress. Today's answer, as previously stated, is "yes," with the current tally of $25 million taxpayer dollars spent there so far, which could pay for things Trump wants to cut, like 9,000 Meals On Wheels, or funding the homeless for six years.
But the Trump family thinks your taxpayer dollars are better spent on keeping them in the lifestyle they think they deserve, even more so now that they apparently feel they've inherited a kingdom rather than winning* an election with an assist from a foreign power.
And it's not just the Mar-a-Lago visits, nor the $35,185 spent on golf cart rentals there so far for the Secret Service to protect Trump in the 18 days he's logged at the golf course as of today. No, there's so much more!
Because while the Trump family acts as if they've inherited a country, the Trump Organization is acting as if they've launched a hostile takeover of the same, and we mere mortals are paying for it dearly.
While Trump was busy bombing things earlier in the week and signing bills to cut women's health care and regulations for retirement account protections, his children were dispatched to various locations around the globe on vacations and business trips, which means more bills were piling up for we the taxpayers.
For instance, Eric Trump was traveling in the United Kingdom and Ireland this week, which means that your tax dollars went to pay for the costs of his hotels, limousines, and Secret Service protection. He then went on to Uruguay and the Dominican Republic, and then joined his brother Donald Trump Jr. in Dubai and Vancouver, Canada. Meanwhile, Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared, the new shadow president,* were rumored to be off somewhere skiing, so add them to the tab. Then there's Trump's wife and youngest son who continue to live in New York at the taxpayer's expense instead of the White House, expenses which recently included a $64,000 bill for “elevator services in Trump Tower."
All of this while Trump and Republicans in Congress are trying to find a way to give him and his rich peers yet another tax cut. Never mind that Trump is keeping his tax returns a secret so you can't see where his money comes from, how much he has, and if he pays any taxes as it is now.
