- Former President Donald Trump granted extended Secret Service protection to his four adult children and wives before leaving the White House, the Washington Post reported.
- Former chief of staff Mark Meadows, former Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and former national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien will also receive the costly full-time security team.
- Extended security can cost taxpayers millions of dollars, especially considering the amount of trips that Trump children take in connection with the family business.
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Former President Donald Trump extended Secret Service protections to all of his adult children and wives, as well as to three senior administration officials, just before he left the White House, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The taxpayer-funded guarantee will be extended to Trump’s four adult children and their spouses – Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and wife Lara Trump, and Tiffany Trump, three people familiar with the president’s request told the Post. Trump’s grandchildren will also be included in the protections derived from his parents.
Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former National Security adviser Robert C. O’Brien also received protection from the president’s Secret Service, according to the Post report .
The extended security posting could cost taxpayers millions of dollars, the Post reported, especially considering the amount of trips that Trump children take in connection with the family business, the Trump Organization.
“From 2017 to 2019, government records show, members of the Trump family made more than 4,500 trips that required the Secret Service to travel with them, costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,” according to the Post report.
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Typically, Trump and his wife Melania automatically receive expensive 24-hour protection for life, and their 14-year-old son, Barron, will receive these protections up to the age of 16. Former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence are also entitled to full-time security details after administration for the next six months.
Trump is not the first president to extend Secret Service protection to those who do not have an automatic right to receive it. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush provided security details to their college-age daughters for a period of time after their terms. Former President Barack Obama extended protections to his daughters Sasha and Malia after he left office, who were in high school and college, respectively.
The news of the extension of the security detachment came on the heels of President Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president of the United States just before noon on Wednesday. A few hours earlier, Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump left the White House aboard Marine One for Palm Beach, Florida.
The Secret Service is also preparing to grant protections to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and their families, including Biden’s two adult children and Harris’s two stepsons.