In one of his final acts before leaving office, Donald Trump signed an executive order extending secret service protection for his four adult children, their families, and three of his administration officials for six months.
By law, the Secret Service is authorized to protect the sitting U.S. president and vice president (or the next-in-line for the presidency), their immediate families, and all former U.S. presidents and their spouses, as well as their children under age 16. It is not unusual for younger children of former presidents to receive temporary security details, as was the case with former president Barack Obama and his two teenage daughters and Bill Clinton’s daughter Chelsea Clinton, who was in college.
It is rare for former administration officials to receive protection beyond the president’s term in office.
But Trump extended protection to Donald Trump Jr., 43, Ivanka, 39, Eric, 37, and Tiffany, 27, as well as their spouses and kids. Protection was also extended to former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien.
According to spending documents obtained by the Washington Post, it cost American taxpayers $1.7 million for the extra months of Secret Service protection to the adult children of a one- term twice impeached former president and three members who served in his administration.
Mnuchin told the Washington Post that he accepted the extra protection “because government officials advised him to maintain it.”
At the time, critics warned that the move could be costly to taxpayers because of the Trumps lavish lifestyles.
A report by the nonprofit Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) shows the Secret Service spent at least $140,000 in Donald Trump’s first month out of office to protect him and members of his family. And that sum “does not include charges at Trump properties in Bedminster, Palm Beach and Briarcliff, New York, which would likely bring the actual total much higher,” the report said.
Records show the Secret Service spent around $52,000 on transportation and nearly $89,000 on hotel costs while traveling with Trump’s adult children in his first 30 days out of office.
The Secret Service paid $62,000 in late January alone just to protect Ivanka Trump and her family on a 10-day trip to Salt Lake City. The agency spent $10,250 to accompany Eric and Lara Trump to Palm Beach for three days and $9,000 to accompany Don Jr. on the same trip for five days.
