The U.S. Secret Service has booked rooms at Mar-a-Lago for two weeks at a time just in case the President goes there and they need them, so that they don’t catch the property sold out.
In total “taxpayers have paid Trump’s businesses more than $900,000 since he took office. At least $570,000 came as a result of the president’s travel.” Trump properties have also charged Republican groups $3.8 million for fundraising events at which the President spoke.
But those aren’t the numbers I’m interested in. It’s the details of the rates being paid. Secret Service guarding Vice President Pence had to pay resort fees at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas.
In early 2017, for instance, Pence visited Las Vegas to speak to a Republican Jewish Coalition gathering. He stayed one night at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, newly released receipts show. The Secret Service was charged for 151 rooms, at about $102 per room per night — the maximum rate for Las Vegas at the time under normal federal per-diem rules. Secret Service agents are allowed to exceed the limit while on protective duty.
In Las Vegas, the Trump hotel also tacked on $29 per room in “resort fees,” receipts show. That added $4,379 to the bill, for a total of $20,183. The hotel’s website said the fee covered services such as coffee, shoe shines and shuttle service to the shopping mall at the Caesars Palace casino. The Trump Organization did not say why it had charged resort fees to working Secret Service agents.
When VP Pence went to @realdonaldtrump’s Las Vegas hotel in 2017, the Secret Service rented 151 rooms over a wk.
Trump Org added “resort fees” to the agents’ bills: $29 per room, per night.
(And nobody would know if we hadn’t sued the govt to get the records) pic.twitter.com/OKeFUJC34h
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) August 27, 2020
Ethics norms notwithstanding I don’t have an issue with the government paying for rooms at Trump properties, even when they’re less convenient for doing business than other hotels and even when they’re more expensive. That’s the price of doing business with Trump and he was elected President under the U.S. system. If this bothers them it may influence their re-election vote.
I do, however, have a problem with resort fees. Resort fees are deceptive to the extent they aren’t option. The money required to pay to stay at a property is literally the room rate. If resort fees added value to a guest’s stay, as Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson claims, they wouldn’t need to be mandatory. And Secret Service members staying on government rates literally cannot take advantage of the supposed amenities.
(HT: Reid F.)
BFD. $131 a night per room including resort fee at a 5* Vegas hotel sounds like a pretty good deal to any normal person, at least those not suffering from TDS/Orange Man Bad syndrome.
Honestly, I can’t believe I’m about to somehow defend both the Administration *and* hotels that charge resort fees, but when I read this article earlier, this actually was the least offensive piece to me really. It’s a standard fee that is charged to all guests. Like it or hate it (I’m in the latter camp), it’s a known quantity and part of the fee structure of the property. The fact that the guests “cannot take advantage of the supposed amenities” doesn’t necessarily hold water because the whole point of resort fees is that, on average, guests won’t use the amenities sufficiently to justify the fees – hence what makes them a profit center!
I can also see a counter-argument where if the fees were waived, there would be investigative journalism mentioning “special treatment” at these properties – possibly even spun as a mechanism (pricing lever) to entice govt. officials to stay there.
Again, can’t believe I just defended two things of which I am not a fan…going to go take a shower now…
@Jose How about $650 per night at his own resorts and secret service paying for hundreds of room nights they didn’t even use because they blocked rooms “just in case.”
I’m sorry, but regardless of political leanings, this is fleecing of taxpayers for personal gain.
Sounds like Trump Hotels should join Bonvoy.
Per Forbes (not exactly a “libtard” rag) his wealth is dropping by billions as of late (no longer a “multi-billionaire”, hard when you were gifted the NPV of ~$400MM as kid), so makes sense he wants to bilk the American taxpayers for as many unnecessary fees as possible.
@Jose you are straight up stupid son
There no way to excuse Trump’s self-dealing, which he promised to avoid, but broke the promise within a couple of weeks of being inaugurated and has not relented since.
Not to mention the stays at his Scotland golf course by the Air Force which have nothing to do with protecting the president or Pence.
“The Air Force spent more at Trump’s Scottish resort than originally thought” –Vox, 9/17/2019
In 2015, when the airport first began to be used shortly after Trump bought the resort, there were 40 overnight stays. That number increased to 75 in 2016, 116 in 2017, 208 in 2018, and 220 so far this year. And as these overnight stays rose, so did Trump Turnberry’s fortunes: It went from losing $4.5 million in 2017 to seeing $3 million in revenue gains in 2018.
Private Companies holding events at these properties would not be paying resort fees, golf cart fees or moving furniture fees. These contracts can be negotiated in advance regardless of actual dates but by guaranteeing a certain amount of business based on history. This is greed and laziness because someone isn’t bothering to do the job. The gov’t doesn’t employ procurement or meeting planners?
Most hotels in Vagas charge resort fees so no matter what secret service still needs to pay it.
It’s not Trump’s issue, it’s the whole lodge industry’s issue.
Non-issue. This is Vegas.
Gotta love how blatant enriching of the president aka corruption is excused by all the Trumpettes.
“That’s the price of doing business with Trump and he was elected President under the U.S. system.”?
So whatever Trump does while he’s President is “the price of doing business with Trump”? Sounds like your of the Yoo and Barr school of thought that thinks the President should be above and beyond the laws of the land and any ethical and moral standards. What a scummy position to take.
I’m amazed that everyone is taking Gary literally. He lays out obviously bad behavior by Trump and says ETHICS ASIDE this is no big deal. He is obviously saying this is a big ethical deal. And since voters blessed Trump in 2016 they’ll have to vote against him in 2020 he’s saying people should vote against Trump. Do you seriously not see this as a broadside against Trump? You’re complaining that Gary is going easy on Trump in a piece written to criticize Trump? Boy Americans sure don’t get irony.
Irony is Dead,
Not voting for Biden in Texas is a de facto vote for Trump this year.
Supporting any Republican candidates for the US Senate this time is a de facto vote for Trump-enablers at this point.
Ask Gary if he is going to vote for Biden for US President. Ask Gary if he’s willing to vote for or otherwise back any current Democratic candidates against Trump and Trump-enablers in the US Senate this time.
He may not be a fan of Trump as US President, but he’s not coming across as someone opposed to Trump’s re-election and Trump’s enablers in the US Senate. Re-electing someone like Trump&Co to such a position again is likely to make for more extreme behavior from a character like Trump after re-election than ever before.
What a silly statement @GUWonder. Because I haven’t publicly declared my votes on this blog I’m therefore enabling Trump? I will not vote for Trump (and did not vote for Trump in 2016).
I think your analysis is off on Texas by the way. Biden will not win Texas in 2020, but if he’s even competitive in Texas it means he’s winning by a landslide already.
I would say that the silly statement is the statement that is a strawman attack.
The question I have is if you will vote for Biden or otherwise support any Democrats against the Trump and his enablers running for US federal office this time around.
we all hate resort fees…it’s disapointing the company wouldn’t waive this for an official govenment visit….how many Covid tests would that have paid? or SS benefits or military benefits, etc….yes, I’m for protecting the office of the president regardless of which part holds power. But let’s not fleece the US taxpayer
Gary what are you talking about man? Resort fees and the room fee go hand-in-hand. It is the industry norm for hotels located in popular vacation destiniatins to have resort fees, especially in Las Vegas. Every single hotel on the strip charges a resort fee on top of the room rate per night. Would it be ethical if the Secret Service booked up 151 rooms at another hotel on the Strip and then refused to pay the resort fee to say the Luxor Hotel? Of course it would be, because if those rooms were not booked by the S.S. then they could have been book by regular travelers who would obviously pay the resort fee since it’s the status quo. Having a hotel in the Vegas area drop their resort fees just because the S.S. Is staying there is bad for business and it’s unfair to expect them to drop one of their revenue streams to begin with.
Small beer in the context of the other Trump mega-ripoffs. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if 12 months from now he’s caught trying to sneak across the border into Mexico, probably dressed as a woman, in order to evade the virtually guaranteed litany of lawsuits that will avalanche after his defeat.
But this story is just further evidence that this family-run cartel will ripoff the taxpayer for all they’re worth.
Note that the resort fees are not automatically excluded for the stays on the Government rates (even when a hotel would request an official travel order or ID). Somehow Federal and State Governments do not make an effort for that exclusion in the setting up those rates. As the voters, we have all the rights to ask why. From time to time I do travel on my clients’ rates and I do not recall seeing a rate that would exclude resort fee.
Note that some government organizations require all air travel to be booked on fully refundable tickets – so your $200 airfare would cost taxpayers $2,000 for the same Y seat. They also have to go through dedicated travel agencies which charge their fees on top of that.
Of course, if you are booking a block of rooms, let say for a conferences, it is up to you to negotiate with a specific hotel to waive the resort fees.
In the case discussed here, I assume that the Secret Service has either a travel department or outsources that to a dedicated travel agency and those guys simply do the booking. If the hotel booking is outsourced to TA, the agents are interested in getting the highest commission offered by hotels.
As someone who travels for work and can pick my own hotels…
I understand the air force thing; IIRC they weren’t ordered to go there; they picked it themselves; if I had the option in my budget to stay at a resort I totally would!
“The Secret Service was charged for 151 rooms, at about $102 per room per night ”
That is less than I pay sometimes for a Hampton inn.
Besides does the Secret Service even rent the rooms under the name “Secret Service”? Sounds like the exact opposite of what they should do.
Maybe they use a group name like “Bavarian Mouse Yodeling Convention” instead to keep things hush hush
Before jumping the gun on this, take a look at what the Obama administration and his (and the first lady’s) huge entourages billed and the type of lodging and amenities they charged the tax payer. If it’s anything like the size of her personal staff compared to the current one, it will pale in comparison.
So how much did the Secret Service pay for rooms in Hawaii every time the Kenyan went to play golf for the weekend? Not to mention the cost to fly back and forth from Andrews.
The $102 a night in LAS is a great deal.. The secret service are billed over $8000 a month to rent a space on the Clinton’s mansion ground in NY to babysit them…That has been an item since he left office many years ago.. I wonder how much rent they are are charged to have space in all of the Obama’s Mansions ???
“That’s the price of doing business with Trump and he was elected President under the U.S. system..”
This is crap. No President, regardless of party, should directly or indirectly enrich themself, their family, their friends, their dog, or whomever at the expense of the tax paying public they are supposed to be serving. This system needs changed, but it’s clearly not going to have that happen as long as people like travel “thought leaders” complacently accept it.
Did you report the millions Obumma paid for his vacations?.. Resort fees aren’t new.. And if Trump is staying at HIS hotels or resorts I doubt he’s paying for the presidential suite.. But you can bet your ass Obumma paid for it.. If you’re a LEFT WING IDIOT make sure you report that as well..
Lots of whataboutism from the rubes. The point is that the President is putting tax dollars into his own pocket. You bumpkins praise him for donating his salary while excusing this.
@Dot, Jose, IP, and every other Trumptard – no need to make the “many fine people on both sides” argument when the data is out there, and it’s not even close.
https://www.citizensforethics.org/trump-family-travel-12x-obama-family/
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-golf-102-million-report-1432550
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2019/07/10/trumps-golf-trips-could-cost-taxpayers-over-340-million/#1b58221828aa
https://www.chronicleonline.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/trump-s-expenses-surpass-obama-s/article_31c6c9f4-33ca-11ea-af4e-c3b39f6f1317.html
1. 95% of Vegas hotels have resort fees. If you gam le enough you can avoid them.
2. What other hotel do you recommend he/they stay at, and do you think the hotel would give Trump a fair price?
3. Usually plenty of vacancy at Trump properties…
4. Do the fee’s total more than the $1.6M in Presidential salary he will have donated at the end of this year? And $3.2M by then end of 2024
#TRUMP2020 #BcWhatWillYouBitchAboutNext
“even when they’re less convenient for doing business than other hotels and even when they’re more expensive”.
No. That is not OK, especially when it 151 rooms we are talking about. And don’t even get me started on the fact that taxpayers should not be footing the bill for Donnie and Mikey’s travel to political fundraisers.
This is the swamp, in all its ugliness.
My, the MAGAits took the bait. We have the birthers (Jose), the “but Obama did it”s (Peck, dot) and the “who cares, it’s Vegas” crowd.
For the last one, I will just say that I have stayed in palatial rooms in the Venetian and Palazzo for less than what the SS paid, and without any points and miles tricks.
It’s amazing to me that consumers will all of a sudden defend resort fees if they think doing so defends the President. I cannot imagine that the President was part of this pricing decision, and the piece says the claims in the Post piece largely don’t matter. Why defend resort fees just because they were charged by the Trump hotel? This is insane.
It would be amazing to me if the “defend Trump at all costs” wouldn’t come out defending Trump properties’ “resort” fees.
Hypocrisy is at the heart of the Trump game.
Just more BS from yet another extreme left-wing moron. Until you hold everyone including Bathhouse Barry and Big Mike to the same standard you will always be considered an idiot.
@Gary – you have a lot of posters on this site who have a hard case of TSS (Trump Sycophantic Syndrome), that’s why…logic stopped applying to them years ago. Just look at the complete and total cognitive dissonance of the RNC last week as an example.
Jim,
Only clueless right-wing-nuts imagine more extreme left-wing Americans than there really are, so do yourself better by not imagining made-up characters that don’t exist in the way you imagine. 😉
Trump spends more time at golf courses and running up his company revenues at direct US taxpayer expense during a Presidential term than has ever been done by either of the prior two US Presidents who were also known to go golfing quite routinely.
I am looking forward to George W Bush voting for Joe Biden for POTUS. That’s what good Americans do at a time like this when we have a Putin-kiss-up, porn-star-grabbing misogynist as President trying to give us more of the same failed nonsense he’s given us already since Presidential Inauguration Day 2017.
Check out this video to get the real deal on what kind of person Trump is even in the mind of his current sycophantic supporters:
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1299357516720205826?s=20
@ wonderbluss
Clueless left-wingers like you supporting senile & racist Creepy Joe Biden are hilarious!!! That senile old pervert can’t even remember how many grand children he has. Keep burning down neighborhoods – it’s doing great in the polls!!! And speaking of polls – President Trump’s number actually went up during and immediately after the democRATS convention!!! What did Creepy Joe run on anyway? Other than “Not Trump”? Raising taxes? Yes. Less freedom? Yes.
I know you hate the “failed nonsense” like low unemployment, pulling troops out of Afghanistan & Iraq, etc, etc. What has senile Creepy Joe accomplished in the 50 years he has been in politics?
From the vantage point of a clueless Trump-lover, just about everyone else is left-wing unless they love Trump and Trump’s antics.
It’s pretty amusing to see Trump-lovers project Trump’s senility, racism and creepy, perverted ways onto Biden — especially weird given that Biden is a man who is far more decent than Trump and is far more capable of governing in a decent way than Trump.
It’s under Trump that American unemployment claims have skyrocketed to levels way worse than anything seen in recent decades; it’s under Trump that an imported virus has killed well over 180,000 Americans in less than 6 months. It’s under Trump that the country is running amok with violent schmucks of all political sorts running riot in their own ways across American neighborhoods.
It’s under Trump, that the US has become a global laughing stock and pity case. Russia’s Putin is having his laughs at the US, and Putin has his Comrade President Trump to thank for making the US a laughing stock, a killing field and an unreliable player in the world.
You are welcome to thank President Trump for making the US passport far less useful for international travel than used to be the case before his failed management, crazy messages and irresponsible handling of the coronavirus situation made the US what it is.
Biden achieved something that Trump has never achieved: being a decent human being and being a capable, caring political leader, and a non-narcissist.
I’ll trade modest achievements for Trump’s monumentally disastrous achievements of letting an imported virus crisis get out of control in the US and destroy American lives and livelihoods on such a scale that it will go down in the history books as one of the worst times in US peacetime history.
@A_B – do you really think that the Secret Service don’t liaise with hotels in advance of a presidential visit? In what world would it be a good idea to show up as a surprise without giving the hotel a chance to organize logistics etc.?
As for all the folks saying that Obama (or whatever racist nickname you prefer) must have spent way more – the facts say otherwise. The claims about the Clintons charging rent from their security detail are likewise false. However, you are right to note that this rate is low compared to what Trump has charged the Secret Service to stay at his properties in he past!
@ wonderbluss
Senile Creepy Joe Biden a “decent human being”??? BWAHAHAHAHA!!! What a buffoon you are!!! Biden is a racist, a rapist and a serial groper of children. You can say otherwise but you are a Lying Dog-Faced Pony Soldier. Nice try Cornpop.
“American unemployment claims have skyrocketed” BWAHAHAHAHA!!! You are delusional!!!
“It’s under Trump, that the US has become a global laughing stock” NOPE. That happen when Bathhouse Barry and Big Mike were bowing down before every foreign leader they could find.
“thank President Trump for making the US passport far less useful” WRONG. Again. I’m overseas right now so I know better. Nice try though. Try getting out of your mom’s basement once in a while.
B.I.D.E.N. Biggest Idiot DemocRATS Ever Nominated
@Jim – dollars to donuts you also think Q is real and that the Dems and Elites are sex trafficking and organ harvesting kids all over the world right?
The hard right / white nationalist population of the US is pretty much certifiably insane at this point.
UA-NYC,
Maybe Jim needs 4 more years of Trump as President before he realizes he and most of the rest of the US has been played as a mark by the con-artist-in-chief-thief Trump.
@un
How many conspiracies can you fit into a single sentence? But don’t worry about the children; I’m sure they are perfectly safe with the likes of Creepy Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Roman Polanski, etc, etc, etc. And the dozens of children rescued in Georgia and Ohio in the last few days are no big deal.
No doubt you find it perfectly sane and normal to loot, riot, burn down businesses, police stations, etc, etc. Keep up the good work!!! Americans love seeing neighborhoods getting burned to the ground; surely this will get Creepy Joe Biden the elected in November – not that he will remember it of course.
https://www.rt.com/usa/499289-us-marshals-rescue-dozens-children/
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/08/27/u-s-marshals-find-25-missing-kids-including-one-mansfield/5647820002/?ocid=uxbndlbing
It’s under Trump that all that Trump decries in America has become more widespread and extreme in the US. Trump seeds conflict and violence and crime in general. Trump is but the false god of “law and order”. Trump is the demon of death, destruction and division in America. It was a Trump-loving, Trump-rally attending wannabe-vigilante criminal teenager from Illinois who killed two unarmed European Americans in Kenosha, Wisconsin this month. It is Trump’s “fine people on both sides” right-wing nuts who are firing guns and pepper spray from pickup trucks in Portland and were also smashing and slashing up.stores and cars in Minneapolis.
Jim’s peddling RT.com? Doesn’t he know that it’s de facto Putin-sponsored Russian TV in English? It’s well-known that Putin’s KGB ways never really ended with the demise of the Soviet Union and that Russia under Putin is all into backing political division and extremism in countries that it sees as the enemy. So it ought to not be a surprise to find that Putin loves that Trump is the US President since Trump is a clown who unleashed death, destruction and division on America.
@Jimbo’s gone so full MAGA, robotically spewing the conspiracy theories, one wonders whether a single grey cell between his ears has escaped the malignancy…
SAD!
@wunderbluss
It’s you clowns that are doing the burning, attacking, and looting. Good job – it’s doing great things for Creepy Joe’s prospects.
I know you are sad one of your fellow child rapists were shot but I see it as a win-win for everyone.
And NO – President Trump has never said “fine people on both sides” but I don’t expect any less from your fact free bs. You lefties don’t have jobs so you have all the time you need to burn and destroy other people’s property. 100% of the looting, burning and attacks are conducted by extreme left wing idiots like you. Keep spewing lies – I find it hilarious!!! I literally LOL at the ignorance of you and your boyfriend DCS!!!
Jim,
You really have some very perverted sexual fantasies in your head when it comes to me and the many other very lawful people who don’t happen to share your political ideology and will never worship your Lord Trump.
The delusional and perversion things are a specialty of your Lord Trump and his most zealous worshippers: as with Trump&Co proclaiming facts to be fiction and lies, all while he and his “fine people on both sides” are playing on people’s ignorance to sell their lies and delusions to the gullible.
@ wunderbluss
The “very perverted sexual fantasies” are all yours. Your entire party seems to be sexual deviants who prey on children. The people you support are sexual predictors and child molesters; and I don’t just mean Creepy Joe and Clinton – Obama also made trips to Epstein’s pedo island. And there is a long, long list of many more. Maybe not every democrat is a pedophile, but every single one has decided it isn’t a big deal. Your girl Kamala excepted a job offer from a man she herself called a racist and a rapist.
@Gary – you seem to have a racist QAnon troll who has found the blog, not sure why these cockroaches keep finding VFTW
@ UA
I KNEW I could make you go cry to mommy!!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!
BTW – Make sure you look in the mirror when you say “racist”.
QUOTE: “I don’t want my children to grow un in a racial jungle” Creepy Joe Biden