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By Ali Vitali
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Nearly half of the additional money, $26.8 million, would pay to protect President Trump’s family and private home in New York’s Trump Tower, the documents show, while $33 million would be spent on travel costs incurred by “the president, vice president and other visiting heads of state,” according to The Washington Post.
From NBC News:
The U.S. Secret Service is facing money problems -- but that's not President Donald Trump's fault, the agency's director said Monday in response to a report that the First Family was straining protective resources.
Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles said funding for roughly 1,100 agents working overtime in 2017 is not an issue "that can be attributed to the current Administration's protection requirements alone, but rather has been an ongoing issue for nearly a decade due to an overall increase in operational tempo."
His comments came after a report in USA Today, in which Alles was interviewed, that the agency's funding problems were partly caused by the president's large family and their multiple, oft-visited Trump properties both in the U.S. and overseas.
Alles told USA Today the agency is handling an unprecedented number of White House officials who need protection. Under Trump, 42 people have protection, including 18 members of the Trump family. That's up from 31 during the Obama administration.
"The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law,'' Alles told the paper. "I can't change that. I have no flexibility.''
