Former president Donald Trump may no longer be in office — but his businesses are still profiting off U.S. taxpayers.
According to a Thursday report from the Washington Post's David A. Fahrenthold, Trump's golf clubs have charged the government $50,000 for rooms used by Secret Service agents since January.
The total includes $40,000 for a room near Trump's at Mar-a-Lago from January to early May, and $10,000 since then ($566.64 per night) for a four-bedroom cottage at Bedminster.
"Separately, the Secret Service also released other bills showing $3,400 in charges from Trump Bedminster before Trump himself arrived," the Post reports. "Those receipts — from January, February and early May — did not say why the Secret Service was at the club."
Experts say there is no law prohibiting Trump's company from charging the Secret Service rent at his properties.
"It's a question of not, 'Can they do it?' but 'Should they be charging that much?' said Jonathan Wackrow, a longtime Secret Service agent who now works for the consulting firm Teneo.
"In recent history, The Post could find only one other protected person who had charged the Secret Service rent: Joe Biden. As vice president, Biden charged the Secret Service $2,200 per month to use a cottage on his property in Delaware. In total, Biden received $171,600 between 2011 and 2017," Fahrenthold reported. "Biden has not charged the Secret Service rent since becoming president in January, a White House spokesman said."
