President Donald Trump has a big family, and securing everyone was always going to be a conundrum for the Secret Service. There's the president himself and first lady Melania Trump. There are five Trump children and eight grandchildren, some in Washington, D.C., others in New York. To say nothing of when they take vacations within the U.S. or abroad.
The number of family members requiring a Secret Service detail is likely a logistical nightmare, and the cost for said details has reportedly ballooned so high that the service cannot afford to pay its more than 1,000 agents, USA Today reported Monday. Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles told the newspaper that some agents have already maxed out the allotted amount for salary and overtime for the entire year after just eight months of Trump in office.
"The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law,'' Alles said. "I can't change that. I have no flexibility.''
The service has been constrained largely due to the size of the Trump family. There are 42 people requiring protection, compared to 31 for former President Barack Obama. The increase in travel for the first family has caused some agents to leave the service, and Alles to lobby for increases in salary and overtime.
Even if Alles can secure additional funding from Congress, it's possible that 130 agents might not receive full pay for work rendered on the Trump family details.
Further, some 1,100 agents are not expected to receive overtime payment approximately 150 leaders from around the world are expected to gather.
The president's many trips away from the White House, which have only been eclipsed in modern history by President George W. Bush during his first year in office, have been heavily criticized and labeled hypocritical. Following Trump's 17-day "working vacation" at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club Sunday, he has altogether had 53 "leisure" days since taking office in January, jaunts that also included seven trips totaling 25 days at his Mar-a-Lago estate and country club in Palm Beach, Florida, according to CNN.
Many media outlets have reported each of the Mar-a-Lago visits as costing roughly $3 million a pop, but a conservative group's estimate puts the cost closer to $1 million, the Associated Press reported.
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