Secret Service made to pay up to $1,185 a night for Trump hotel stays, files show

Documents released by congressional committee appear to show ex-president profiting from security detail in and out of office

The US Secret Service was made to pay as much as $1,185 a night to stay at properties belonging to former president Donald Trump, a congressional committee said on Monday as it released documents that appeared to show the former president profiting from his protection details in and out of office.

All told, the Secret Service, which is mandated by law to protect the president and his family, spent $1.4m at Trump-owned properties in the US, according to records obtained by the Democratic-led House oversight committee as part of its investigation into Trump conflicts of interest.

“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,” the committee chair, the New York representative Carolyn Maloney, said in a statement.

The documents contradicted statements from the former president’s son Eric Trump.

In 2019, he claimed the Secret Service was charged “like, $50” for hotel rooms. The following year, he said: “We provide the rooms at cost and could make far more money renting them to members or guests.”