Trump's Secret Service grift shows he'll make money 'any way he can': Maggie Haberman
A new report issued this week exposed how the Trump Organization charged exorbitant rates for Secret Service agents to stay at former President Donald Trump's hotels, including charges of $1,185 per night to stay at his since-sold Washington D.C. hotel.
Appearing on CNN to discuss the report, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said that Trump's shakedown of American taxpayers via sky-high Secret Service hotel charges fits right in with the pattern he's established throughout his business career.
"Those rates are very, very high and those rates are so high they're only going to call attention to what Trump was doing," she said. "Trump, who looks to make a profit any way he can and always has, probably could have made a profit without going so exorbitantly high, but doing that is just going to draw attention from people who engage in government oversight."
Haberman was skeptical that anything could be done to claw back the money that Trump charged to taxpayers, but she said it could be a factor politically going forward.
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"I don't know what can be done about this now in hindsight, but I think it's something people need to bear in mind as Donald Trump looks to potentially become a candidate again," she said.
In total, taxpayers gave the Trump Organization at least $1.4 million to house Secret Service agents on the company's properties, which Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) argued this week was a sign of significant corruption.
"The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former President’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former President Trump’s struggling businesses," she wrote in a letter to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.
The new records also contradict claims made by Eric Trump that the hotels only charged the Secret Service "at cost" for their stays.
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