The president, who derided Barack Obama for golfing while in office, even makes money off his Mar-a-Lago weekends<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has become a familiar routine for the Palm Beach county sheriff, Ric Bradshaw, and his deputies. Almost every Tuesday in recent weeks, the Federal Aviation Administration has posted to its website a formal \u201cnotice to airmen\u201d advising of upcoming flight restrictions<\/a> over south Florida<\/a>, signaling once again to those who must protect him that Donald Trump<\/a> is on his way to Mar-a-Lago for another weekend of golf<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president is at his waterfront mansion again this weekend, his sixth visit to Florida<\/a> and the beloved golf courses he owns since his 20 January inauguration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His increasingly frequent and disruptive trips home are fast becoming a drain on county resources, obligating Bradshaw to put helicopters in the air, extra manpower on the ground, and boats on both sides of Trump\u2019s opulent mansion sandwiched between the Atlantic and the Intracoastal Waterway almost continuously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The demands from the Secret Service to help them protect Trump, and the president\u2019s family and entourage, are \u201csubstantial\u201d, the sheriff told county commissioners<\/a> last month, just before the president flew in for an extended six-day visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey request it, and then we provide it. It\u2019s expensive, but we don\u2019t really have a choice,\u201d Bradshaw said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sheriff\u2019s office declined to immediately provide the Guardian with a detailed breakdown of its expenditure, but the daily overtime bill<\/a> alone has previously been reported to be $240,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commissioners approved Bradshaw\u2019s \u201curgent request\u201d of $45m to provide security for Trump\u2019s visits through November, an invoice he said was certain to rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve already heard some information where he may be spending more time here than in Washington,\u201d Bradshaw said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDefinitely you\u2019re going to see him bringing in leaders from the world. That is a significant shift in the cost for security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Palm Beach bill, high as it is, pales against the federal costs of indulging the commander-in-chief\u2019s wanderlust. That\u2019s included his multimillion-dollar trip<\/a> to the Super Bowl in New Orleans last month, and an appearance at Nascar\u2019s Daytona 500<\/a> weeks later, which critics saw as little more than an extravagant and expensive photo op.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whenever he wishes to roam, the presidential airliner Air Force One is fueled up and fully staffed, racking up an hourly operational cost approaching $200,000, according to a 2022 air force assessment<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a roughly two-hour flight time from Washington DC, each visit to and from Palm Beach international airport costs taxpayers about a million dollars just in travel, once an additional cargo flight carrying the presidential motorcade is factored in, as well as ferrying Trump from the White House to Joint Base Andrews on the Marine One helicopter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report<\/a>, meanwhile, calculated in 2019 that federal agencies spent an average of $13.6m on each of four Trump odysseys to Mar-a-Lago that it audited during his first term in office, with a chunk of that money going straight into Trump\u2019s pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2017, he spent four of the first seven weekends immediately after his inauguration golfing in Florida; this year the tally is already at six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Noah Bookbinder, president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), which tallied more than 500 first-term visits<\/a> by Trump to properties he owned, said the pattern was already repeating itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe start with the clear principle that presidents are entitled to Secret Service protection wherever they go, and have their transportation covered. There\u2019s nothing inherently wrong with that when he does any of the things he does,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHowever, there are serious issues. One is that he maintained ownership of his businesses, so this is not a question of going to the president\u2019s house; it\u2019s going to the president\u2019s business where payment is made directly to a business that benefits the president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want the presidency to be the main focus of the president. That\u2019s not to say presidents don\u2019t have time to recharge and take a break like everybody else, but when you go to your own business property it moves the focus, at least potentially, from your official duties to promoting and attending to your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd that is a different kind of problem than taking more weekends off than we\u2019d like, or how often a president plays golf, or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said he had similar concerns, pointing to evidence of Trump excessively overcharging the Secret Service<\/a> to stay at his properties during his first administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs much as the waste of taxpayer resources for excessive vacationing is, there\u2019s the self-enrichment from the payments made to Mar-a-Lago by agents who were there to provide security,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf course, Trump famously ran the first time complaining about the amount of golf that Barack Obama played, which was more or less local and didn\u2019t require plane travel. Our strong preference is that Trump flies to Florida, and stays there for full-time retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, Palm Beach county expects to be reimbursed with federal funds for what it spends protecting the president. But that is little consolation to residents who are now footing the bill while enduring numerous road closures and other inconveniences every weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s constant visits to Mar-a-Lago, which he calls his \u201cwinter White House\u201d, were examined by journalist Victoria De Cardenas last month during a news segment titled Wa$te Watch<\/a> on Palm Beach television station CBS12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe do think it\u2019s worth considering whether, for the benefit of taxpayers and commuters who have been caught up in the freeway shutdowns during Friday night rush hour more than once lately, maybe he could spend the weekend in the real White House a little more often,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n