Totally Unshocking News: Trump Has Reportedly Used Up the Secret Service’s Entire Budget for the Year

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According to an interview with Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles in USA Today, the Secret Service is out of cash. Apparently, Trump’s large family and unwillingness to give up his pre-presidential lifestyle means that “more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.”

The Secret Service is required by law to protect Trump’s entire family, which has resulted in an “unprecedented” number of protectees, according to Alles. 42 people in total have protection (18 of which are family members), up from 31 under Obama. And those 31 people weren’t taking “VIP” business trips that cost the Secret Service $100,000 for hotel rooms alone like Eric Trump has famously done. $100,000 that went, by the way, to a hotel bearing the family name. Both Eric and Donny Jr. have traveled abroad to open new Trump hotels and golf clubs. Meaning taxpayers are essentially funding the expansion of the Trump brand.

The same goes for those regular trips to Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s Bedminster golf club. Each one of those costs about $3 million at properties owned by Trump. The Secret Service has had to pay Trump $60,000 to rent golf carts to protect him at his own properties. Earlier this month, the Secret Service had to leave their post in Trump Tower, where the First Lady was still living, after a dispute over their lease. It certainly feels like Trump doesn’t do anything without making sure the Trump Organization will make money off of it. To everyone who thought it would be a neat idea to let a businessman run the country, congratulations. This is what that looks like.

People are not happy.

Although the GOP and media conservatives are oddly silent.

According to the USA Today interview, about a third of Secret Service agents have already reached their limit for compensation & overtime. Congress is discussing increasing the overtime cap for the agency, but even if that happens, about 130 agents still won’t be compensated for the overtime they’ve already worked. Alles pointed out the obvious by saying “We cannot expect the Secret Service to be able to recruit and keep the best of the best if they are not being paid for these increases (in overtime hours).”

No, I don’t think we can expect the best of the best to want to do this particular job.

(via USA Today, image: )

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Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.