Day 215: Trump Stares Into Solar Eclipse; Secret Service Stares Into Financial Eclipse
We have often noted the similarities between Donald Trump and a child. Still, nothing could have prepared us for the photo above, where Trump stares into a solar eclipse without eye protection in the same way a seven-year old would, no matter how many times they had been warned not to look.
The photo is a perfect metaphor for Trump’s first seven months in the White House: he’s doing something he’s been warned not to do (looking), he has better alternatives that he eschews (he had a pair of special viewing glasses), and he takes big risks (severe eye damage) with very little reward (during the solar eclipse, the sun would’ve looked like a blurry ball with the naked eye from his vantage point).
In other news, the Secret Service is staring into a financial eclipse. According to USA Today, “[M]ore than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.” By the end of September, the Secret Service will be out of agents — per the federally mandated cap — that they are allowed to pay to protect the 42-member Trump contingent.
Trump’s vacations are lengthy and exceedingly expensive.
Trump’s frequent visits to his “winter White House” and “summer White House” are especially challenging for the agency, which must maintain a regular security infrastructure at each — while still allowing access to paying members and guests.
Always costly in manpower and equipment, the president’s jaunts to Mar-a-Lago are estimated to cost at least $3 million each, based on a General Accounting Office estimate for similar travel by former President Obama.
Protecting the rest of the family, as well as other costs, adds up quickly:
For example, in June, Mr. Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, traveled to Berlin with her boyfriend. A Secret Service detail went with her at a cost of $22,439. Secret Service details have also shadowed Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. during their business travel overseas. The cost to the Secret Service for those trips have topped at least $200,000. The Secret Service has also spent $64,000 to inspect elevators at Trump Tower and $73,000 on golf cart rentals at Trump properties.
The American taxpayer has paid for the Trump children to be accompanied by Secret Service to, at least, the following destinations: Uruguay, the United Kingdom, the Dominican Republic, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Hungary, and, of course, numerous locations throughout the United States.
215 days in, 1247 to go
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