Eric Trump racked up a taxpayer-funded hotel bill that would make Kevin McCallister weep on a two-day business trip to Uruguay last year. The president’s son visited a Trump Organization property being developed in Punta Del Este on Jan. 8 and 9 in a trip that cost taxpayers at least $80,786, the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington found after obtaining records under the Freedom of Information Act. More than $55,000 went to the Grand Hotel, a luxury hotel one block from the Trump development where Eric stayed.
The costs are part of a massive bill of Secret Service protection that the president’s family has racked up while managing his private business empire. Eric’s previous trip to the Uruguay property in 2017 cost taxpayers $97,830 in hotel rooms for Secret Service and embassy staff. “The fact that his protection comes at such a significant cost when he is promoting foreign business interests raises serious ethics questions, as the company could repay the government, although we’ve seen no signs that they do,” CREW said.
Read it at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
