A $1,000 bar bill racked up by Team Trump during a heavy night at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort was paid for by taxpayers, according to an investigation by ProPublica. The $1,076 bill—reportedly run up by a group including then-strategist Steve Bannon and then-Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin—covered 54 drinks coming in at $18.62 each. Mar-a-Lago sent the bill to the State Department, which refused to pay, but it was eventually covered by the White House. It’s one example of how Trump’s administration pays tax money to a club where Trump reaps the revenue. ProPublica reports that there are hundreds of pages of receipts and email correspondence showing government spending at Trump clubs. They show the president’s company charges the maximum allowable federal rate for hotel rooms of $546 per night. The government was also charged more than $3,500 for conference space at Mar-a-Lago, but asked for and got a 10 percent discount so that it wouldn’t violate spending rules.
