Eric Trump, one of President Donald Trump’s many unloved spawn, is heading to Doonbeg, Ireland, to stump for local approval to build a big ugly ballroom at the Trump family golf resort, Trump International Golf Links, there.
And guess what? Just like daddy, American taxpayers will get to foot the bill for part of this debacle as well.
And why is this our problem, fellow taxpayers? Because also just like daddy, Eric gets Secret Service protection wherever he goes. For that, you’re going to pay $21,449.01.
It’s unreal that the Trump family is still doing this pissant upcharge Secret Service grift thing. Eric has literally gotten ten times richer over the last year, now clocking in with a net worth of around $400 million. If that were his yearly wage for an actual job—not a thing he has ever had—dude would be making over $1 million per day.
Dude ratchets up roughly $45,000 every hour. In other words, it would cost him less than 30 minutes of his time to make that $21,449.01, but why would he do that when he can have your money? Might as well soak us all for every last drop.
To be fair, we don’t actually know if that money will be going right back into the Trump family coffers by making the Secret Service stay at Doonbeg. Well, we don’t actually know because the Secret Service contract has no breakdown of costs, no explanation, and no location. Definitely a totally normal way for the government to work and not something Republicans would howl with rage over if Hunter Biden had done the same thing.
Though it is probably news to the Trump family, most government contracts actually do require all those boring details before the government opens its coffers. But not if you are a Trump. Eric apparently doesn’t have to disclose where his agents are going to stay so sure, yeah, they could totally be staying somewhere else, right?
Oh, you sweet summer child. We paid almost $28,000 for Eric’s Secret Service detail to stay with him in Doonbeg back in 2017. Not that Eric or his dad made it easy for anyone to find that out, but ProPublica managed to shake it loose.
Eric is positively frugal versus dad, however. Trump’s 2019 Ireland stay—at his own property, mind you—ran up a Secret Service bill of over $500,000. And that was for a two-day stay.
Remember the first term when the Trump family kept lying and declaring that the Secret Service totally got to stay for super cheap at the family digs, and it just made sense? And then we found out Trump routinely upcharged them by about 300%? Good times.
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Now, unlike the big dumb American ballroom, where Trump just YOLOed his way into destroying the East Wing without checking in with anyone, it appears that for Eric’s smaller but no less dumb Irish ballroom, the family did actually seek government approval.
If you were curious about just how much this project apes his father’s, know that Eric’s plans involve demolishing a bunch of existing stuff, including an event marquee, a concrete yard, a boiler, and more.
Eric is also going to demolish the existing 260-person ballroom so he can build a bigger 320-person ballroom. Like father, like son.
Eric, your daddy is never going to love you, but at least you will have an ugly ballroom to call your own. And at least we will get to pay for your Secret Service detail forever.
Lisa Needham
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