The Secret Service has protected Trump family members on 4,000 trips in three years

[Zorro]

One of the most common criticisms of former president Barack Obama during his two terms in office was that he and his family took an exorbitant number of vacations. Donald Trump, then a private citizen, liked to use Obama’s trips as a critique.

Link to tweet

Once Trump took office, his position on trips (and on Obama’s golf habit) shifted dramatically, though the rhetoric of many of his supporters didn’t. While the media tracked Trump’s regular trips to his privately owned properties in Florida and New Jersey, Trump’s supporters regularly defended Trump by pointing to the frequency and cost of Obama’s trips.

Data compiled by the Treasury Department, which oversees the Secret Service, shows the distribution of protected trips within the administration from 2010 to 2016. The figures, obtained and published by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, show that Obama, then-first lady Michelle Obama and their family took about 4,700 trips from 2010 to 2016. Just under 1,000 of those were for members of the president’s family, excluding Michelle. Most of the protected trips that were taken over that period were by former officials, including former presidents and their families.

(The Secret Service defines a protected trip as “any instance that an individual protectee spends time within the jurisdiction of a single USSS field office, other than the protectee’s home district.”)
The data obtained by CREW extended into Trump’s own term in office. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, members of the presidents’ family took 4,560 trips — the bulk of them in the past two years.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/10/secret-service-has-protected-trump-family-members-4000-trips-three-years/

[mwooldri]

1. I don't want to defend Trump here but I'm going to...

Trump has a bigger family, one that is grown up. This would in itself explain some of the increased Secret Service protection costs for the First Family. Especially since some of those family members are doing double duty as advisors to the "government".

Does this fully explain the big discrepancy? No. But it is a partial explanation. We can give him that at least. But yeah, there's some pork in there somewhere. What is Don Jr doing and why does he need Secret Service protection?

[GemDigger]

2. The problem I have with it is that the kids are out doing Trump business and not necessarily

US business. If their businesses were in a blind trust that would be one thing, but they are openly doing Trump business.