The former first son-in-law’s jaunt to the Middle East last week cost the U.S. $13,000.

If you only got your news from Donald Trump’s new social media website (a.k.a blog), or by watching the speeches he gives to wedding guests and random passersby at Mar-a-Lago like an old man shouting at an empty blender, you might think he was still president. In fact, he is not, but the U.S. is still paying for Secret Service protection for all of his adult children and their families. Which is why when former first son-in-law Jared Kushner took a little trip to the Middle East last month, it cost taxpayers nearly $13,000.

The Daily Beast reports that federal documents show the State Department coughed up at least $12,950 for Ivanka Trump’s husband’s security detail to accompany him during a stay the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi between May 5 and May 14. It’s not clear what Kushner was doing in Abu Dhabi, but we assume it was related to the “Abraham Accords Institute for Peace” that he recently founded after pretending to solve the conflict in the Middle East. (Yes, it appears that despite reading 25 books on the matter, Kushner did not actually bring stability to the region, which is shocking considering his “breakthrough” deal, hailed as the Trump administration’s “biggest foreign policy achievement,” made little to no mention of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Or that one review of his plan read, “The authors of the plan clearly understand nothing.”)

While $13,000 sounds like a large chunk of change for taxpayers to cover for an extremely wealthy private citizen, it was actually a lot less than what Americans had to fork over for Kushner’s last overseas visit as first son-in-law, which cost taxpayers at least $24,335 in hotel fares alone, not including the tab for flights, local transportation, and meals, as well as salary and overtime for Kushner’s Secret Service detail, per the Daily Beast. Or the sum the U.S. is expected to shell out for the entire Trump clan over the next few months. As The Washington Post wrote in January, “The perk for the Trump family is expected to cost taxpayers millions of dollars and further stress the elite federal security force, which in the past four years had to staff the largest number ever of full-time security details—up to 42 at one point, according to former senior administration officials.”

As the Daily Beast notes, it is “virtually unheard of” for former administration officials, like Jared and Ivanka, to keep their Secret Service protection after they leave office, just as it is “highly unusual,” per The Washington Post, for a president to provide 24-hour security to so many adult family members, particularly the kind who take personal trips all over the world, in addition to travel related to their work at the Trump Organization. According to the Post, “from 2017 to 2019, government records show, Trump family members took more than 4,500 trips that required Secret Service to travel alongside them, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.” When Jared and Ivanka spent a weekend in the Dominican Republic in 2018, for example, taxpayers spent more than $58,000 of public funds on room and board, the Daily Beast noted.

While Trump is said to have regularly complained about Secret Service agents being too short or too overweight for his liking, and Javanka refused to let their detail use their half a dozen toilets, other family members treated the people protecting their lives with a little more respect. Like Vanessa Trump, who wisely traded in Don Jr. for an agent, and Tiffany Trump, who reportedly dated one of hers, a claim she strongly denies.

Source: BESS LEVIN/Vanityfair.com

Date Posted: Tuesday, May 18th, 2021 , Total Page Views: 735