It became a familiar routine for Palm Beach County Sheriff, Rick Bradshaw, and his deputies. Almost every Tuesday, the Federal Aviation Administration posted a formal “airline notification” on its website regarding upcoming flight restrictions through South Florida, signaling once again to those who must protect Donald Trump that he is on his way to Mar Arago on another weekend of golf.
The president again took part in his waterfront mansion this weekend, his sixth visit to Florida and his beloved golf course he has owned since taking office on January 20th.
His increasingly frequent and destructive trips quickly drain the county’s resources, requiring Bradshaw to place helicopters in the air, placing extra talent on the ground, and boats on either side of Trump’s gorgeous mansion sandwiched between the Atlantic and the waterways in the thyroid gland are nearly continuous.
The request from the Secret Service to help them protect Trump and the president’s family and aides is “substantial,” the sheriff told county commissioners last month just before the president took off for his six-day visit.
“They demand it, and then we offer it. It’s expensive, but we really don’t have a choice,” Bradshaw said.
The Sheriff’s Office immediately refused to provide the Guardian with a detailed breakdown of its spending, but the daily overtime bill alone is reported to be $240,000.
The commissioner has approved Bradshaw’s $45 million “urgent request” to provide security for Trump’s visits through November.
“We’ve already heard some information that he might be spending more time here than Washington,” Bradshaw said.
“We’ll definitely see him bringing leaders from the world. This is a huge change in security costs.”
Palm Beach Bill violates the federal government’s expense of indulging in the wanderlust of the best commander. This includes a multi-million dollar trip to the Super Bowl in New Orleans last month and an appearance at NASCAR’s Daytona 500 weeks later.
According to the 2022 Air Force rating, whenever he wanted to roam, the President’s Aircraft Air Force was fueled, fully staffed and earned an hourly operating cost that approached $200,000.
With a flight time of about two hours from Washington, DC, every time you travel to Palm Beach International Airport, taxpayers become about $1 million taxpayers on the trip, with additional cargo flights carrying the president’s cars earning Trump from the White House on the ferry to Marine Corps helicopter co-base Andrews.
Meanwhile, the latest Government Accountability Office (GAO) report was calculated in 2019 that in an average of $13.6 million was spent on Mar-a-Lago, which was audited during its first term, by federal agencies.
In 2017, he spent four of his first seven weeks shortly after his inauguration golf in Florida. This year, the tally is already 6 years old.
Noah Bookbinder, president of Watchdog Group Citizens, said that Trump’s first-term visits have been tallied on his property, which is due to the responsibility and ethics of Washington (the crew).
“We start with the clear principle that the President is entitled to Secret Service protection wherever he goes and covers transportation. When he does one of the things he does, there’s nothing essentially wrong with it,” he said.
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“But there’s a serious problem. One is that he maintains ownership of his business. This is not a matter of going to the president’s house. He goes to the president’s business, where payments are made directly to the business that benefits the president.”
“I hope that the presidency will be the main focus of the president. That doesn’t mean that the president doesn’t have time to recharge and take breaks like everyone else, but when you go to your own business property, it focuses on promoting and attendance from your official duties to your business.
“And that’s a different kind of problem from taking more weekends off than we want.
Robert Weissman, co-chairman of the consumer advocacy group’s civics, said there were similar concerns, pointing to evidence that Trump overcharged secret services during his first administration to remain on his property.
“The waste of taxpayer resources for excessive vacations is self-rich from payments made to Mar-a-Lago by agents who were there to provide security,” he said.
“Of course, Trump famously ran for his first run about the amount of golf played by Barack Obama. Our strong preference is that Trump flies to Florida and stays there for his full-time retirement.”
Ultimately, Palm Beach County hopes to reimburse federal funds for what it spends on protecting the president. But that’s comfort to residents who are creating the bill while enduring numerous road closures and other inconveniences every weekend.
Trump’s constant visit to Mar Lago, which he calls the “Winter White House,” was examined last month by journalist Victoria de Cardenas in a news segment titled wa $te watch on Palm Beach television station CBS12.
“For the benefit of taxpayers and commuters who have recently been caught up in highway closures during Friday night rush hour, I think it’s worth considering whether he can spend the weekend a little more often in the actual White House,” she said.
