Yes this is related to politics but it has a factual answer. Right now Trump is flying to his Mar-a-lago resort more weekends than not. I’ve heard quotes it’s costing $3 million a day for the extra security costs and Air Force One costs when he does this.
Which specific part of the US government budget is this coming from? At some point will Trump run out and have to ask congress for extra? (They control the budgets)
Why are you so upset? Donald Trump is a job creator. There are plenty of people working at the Secret Service. You want them all to go on unemployment?
Moderator Note
This is a factual question asked in the General Questions forum. Given that Trump comments can quickly throw threads off the rails around here lately, please focus on answering the question factually, and take all other comments to more appropriate forums.
This applies to all responses in this thread.
I hope this isn’t derailing but I wonder where they can recruit all the dedicated people who are prepared to sacrifice their lives for the President, the VP and all the others. The Secret Service has done a fairly good job over the years protecting senior politicians and their families, not to mention ex-presidents and their families, but they must be stretched pretty thin these days.
To at least partially answer the OP, the Secret Service was originally part of the Treasury Department, as it had been created to combat counterfeiting. The job of protecting the President was added later. In 2003, the Secret Service was moved into the Department of Homeland Security.
The Secret Service isn’t just a handful of guys in suits protecting the President. It’s a very large and well-funded organization. According to Wikipedia, it’s budget in 2014 was $2.8 billion. They have everything from the guys you see in suits behind the President all the way down to their own uniformed officers. I have no idea how they do their recruiting, but I assume that you start at the bottom as a uniformed officer and work your way up.
While a lot of news stories have focused on Trump’s supposedly excessive Secret Service costs, the Secret Service has been rather dismissive of the costs that Trump is incurring. Granted, any time the President goes anywhere it isn’t cheap, but some of those high “estimates” may be coming from Trump’s opponents. The one thing I guarantee you is that the numbers did not come from the Secret Service, as those numbers are classified and the Secret Service does not release them to the public.
With a budget of billions, I don’t see the Secret Service asking Congress for more money any time soon. In any event, they are part of the Department of Homeland Security, which has an annual budget (again, according to Wikipedia) of $41.2 billion. If the Secret Service costs became excessive, I would assume that the Department of Homeland Security would shuffle its budget around to cover the costs before turning to Congress to ask for more money.
What ‘extra’ security ? No doubt he has the same detail year round. all presidents get endlessly criticized for taking holidays, and for ever using Air Force One.
Bush II daily cost of security was $2 million; it’s bound to have gone up nearly two decades later. Year 2008 = $1.6 billion.
*Seriously, it really depends on what one wants to count, but there appears to be no appreciable difference between Obama’s expenses and Bush’s.
Patterson, in his sober account of his tally, noted: “This is the office of the chief executive of a $3 trillion government — a government currently at war, with its security forces on duty, under the chief executive’s command, in virtually every corner of the planet.”*
Washington Post Fact-Checker
I would point out as defense of all this that old Obama was at war somewhere every single day of his presidency. The cost of his military machine far outweighs any White House expense.
Air Force One and the other planes that follow the president are mostly Air Force jets (for major foreign trips they charter a civilian plane for the press). 2015 military funding was $600 billion, so the President could fly around the world nonstop for four years and it would be spare change.
Some at least are Mormons. Mormons are not of a wild child nature, conscientious, and not people enjoying drink, drugs or smoking: therefore they are dispensable.
The overall direct answer to the opening question is a flat “no.”
If Congress were able to limit the President’s travel through funding, it would destroy the balance between the branches of government. All that Congress had to do to effectively prevent the President from taking any actions at all, would be to reduce his budget to zero.
The president’s security budget is classified so we can t know all the details. Secret Service faces massive bill for protecting Trump - POLITICO
That said, there is good reason to believe this president’s security budget will dwarf that of recent predecessors. As you note, he travels constantly to Mar-a-Lago. His wife maintains a full time residence in New York. His children travel abroad for business.
Some portion of this cost is simply pushed off onto the state’s and municipalities where he travels. Melania costs the New York City police department millions. It’s uncertain whether they will be repaid. Perhaps Broward County Florida has the same issue when the president visits. Congress would have to appropriate money to repay these costs. It wouldn’t come out of the Secret Service budget.
The Secret Service budget largely goes to “operations” without much detail. It requested about $2.15 billion total for 2017 with $1.77 billion for for operations and support. Pdf of 2017 Secret Service budget request: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/FY2017BIB.pdf
This operations budget covers all the Secret Service missions: protecting the president’s family, protecting foreign dignitaries to the U.S., protecting foreign embassies, safeguarding the White House complex (which includes the Treasury building, Eisenhower executive office building, and the Office of Management and Budget too), and investigating counterfeiting and financial crimes. If the Presidential protective detail starts to spend too much, the Secret Service director can take money from these other programs. Since he reports to the president, I’m betting he’d do that instead of telling the president, “You’re on your own!”
There is one budget-saving measure for the protective detail: Secret Service agents’ salaries are capped. Congress Looks to Ensure Secret Service Agents Receive Earned Overtime Pay - Government Executive
In theory, if the overtime for presidential protection detail gets too high, agents having to work without overtime pay should limit the damage. It doesn’t work out that way. When agents reach the cap, many will request unpaid leave and stop working altogether. If the unpaid leave is denied, they may just quit. Secret Service agents are in demand for corporate security jobs, other jobs in federal agencies, military contractors, etc. They will find good work. The Secret Service is currently understaffed and it has trouble recruiting due to the stringent hiring standards, the low morale, and the disappointing pay.
There is no one, over-all “presidential budget.” It’s spread out over a whole bunch of agencies. Some presidential aides are military, and their salaries while at the White House are still paid by their military branch.
The exterior White House grounds are maintained by the National Park Service.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/03/white-house-grounds-keeper-talks-public-fascination-presidential-pets.html
The General Services Administration also plays a part, as well as several others.
Moderator Note
I fail to see what this has to do with the OP. Please confine your remarks to the subject of the thread.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I know security is expensive but I really wonder how it cost millions to protect Trump Tower. I know it’s in NYC which is a very high cost of living area. I would like to see a breakdown of the various costs.
I’m sure part of the issue is Trump Tower has other people living and working there so it’s not like the White House where it can be sealed off with fences and gates.
What makes you think Congress could not do this if they wanted? Does the president have a Constitutional right to travel at the public’s expense?
I suspect some of it is considered ‘soft dollars’ and what a mess it might make when Melina steps out of the Trump tower.
Overtime/extra personnel, for one. You can’t just pull a number of officers off their regular beat and leave that shorthanded.
Traffic control. I understand that part of 5th Avenue is blocked off.
Security of adjoining buildings. No idea how many are in whatever perimeter has been established.
Congress might be able to cut the Secret Service budget, and indirectly affect things that way, but to answer your constitutional question, there is nothing specific saying that the President can travel on the People’s dime.
However, more important, there is nothing there either, that says that the Congress can LIMIT Presidential travel. Therefore, by way of the Tenth Amendment, they can’t.
Similarly, the President can send the troops into battle, but Congress has to fund their material support. Congress COULD decide to “show the President who’s boss” by denying funds, but they aren’t likely to do so.
So indirectly, yes, the President has a constitutional right to travel at our expense.
I’m not sure how much it cost on the US side of things, but the Trump boys’ recent visit to Vancouver was criticized for its cost to Canadian taxpayers: Security heightened before Trump sons' visit to Vancouver | CBC News
Interestingly, it is just folded into the existing police operations budget, so no one would release actual costs.
igor, if you don’t know what you are talking about, don’t post such nonsense in a factual forum.
There is no presidential right to travel. Art I, sec 9 states that no funds may be drawn from the Treasury except as authorized by law. I’m not aware of any time that Congress has sought to take punitive action against the President for excessive travel, but Congress can pass any damn spending bill it likes as long as either the President signs it or they can override a veto. That bill is unlimited as to how the Congress may want to fund the Air Force, Secret Service, or whatever.
But Congress would surely not recklessly cut Presidential travel budgets without thinking of themselves. The Air Force also supports some congressional travel on the same airplanes that support cabinet officials. If Congress seeks to limit the President’s travel, come recess time, it just might happen that all of Air Force’s official fleet is busy. You know; busy washing its hair.
The Air Force has an operation and maintenance budget that is in excess of roughly $30 billion. If airlift for the President and all the stuff that travels with him (comma gear, cars, helicopters, etc) get too expensive, then the Air Force would simply squeeze the budget for other operations.
I do not know how the Secret Service would handle budget overruns, but it would make sense that protecting a larger First Family would seriously raise demands on its officers.
I agree that it is unlikely that Congress could lawfully limit the president’s ability to travel. But I don’t see how it follows that their unlikeliness to restrict the travel budget confers an implicit right for the President to travel at public expense, even in order to execute his official duties.