Protection for Hunter Biden goes on our tab

Say what you will about Hunter Biden, his hustle game is strong.

Unfortunately, it’s the American taxpayer who’s being hustled.

While the Justice Department is investigating Biden’s taxes and reportedly looking into whether he violated money laundering and foreign lobby laws, the president’s son is kicking back in a Malibu manse to the tune of $20,000 a month, according to property listings.

When your novice artwork sells for $75,000 to $500,000 a pop — which has nothing to do with the fact that your pop’s the leader of the free world — you can afford to rent alongside the Malibu moneyed.

But Hunter Biden is also getting Secret Service protection, paid for by taxpayers. And his detail has been paying more than $30,000 a month to rent out a nearby Malibu mansion for nearly a year, sources told ABC News.

That’s $360,000 just on rent, not counting the cost of the detail itself. When compared to the trillions of dollars the president and fellow Democrats rack up on spending sprees in D.C., $360,000 is butter and egg money.

When compared to how much ordinary people have to scrimp and do without thanks to recordhigh inflation and surging gas prices, $360,000 a year to house Hunter Biden’s security detail is insulting.

The agency responsible for protecting the president and his family — among other ranking government officials — selected the property in order to be located as close as possible to Biden’s own rented mansion, said the sources.

Retired senior Secret Service agent Don Mihalek, now an ABC News contributor, said the arrangement is “the cost of doing business for the Secret Service,” adding that under the federal law, the agency has a mandated protective responsibility for the president, the first family and anybody else the president designates for protection.

Protection for the president and the first lady is mandated, and the Secret Service provides protection as well for the president’s family — but they can decline.

And presidential children have done so.

Of note is Ron Reagan Jr., who nixed protection in his father’s second term.

George H.W. Bush’s five adult children did not receive protection when he was in the White House, according to the Daily Mail.

All of Donald Trump’s children have accepted Secret Service protection but Donald Trump Jr. briefly declined.

In September 2017 Trump Jr. was reported to have said he no longer wanted their protection, out of a desire for more privacy.

He took it back, but saying no can be done.

Hunter Biden even stopped the perk of Secret Service protection in July 2014, back when his dad was vice president, and just after Time magazine published a piece spotlighting the younger Biden’s ties to Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings.

While Hunter Biden is one of President Biden’s children, he is not a child. He’s 52. Why does he need protection? Why, especially, does he need a Secret Service detail paid for by taxpayers?

One would think Hunter Biden would favor a low profile, even without the current Justice Department investigation. He has baggage, in the form of his Burisma ties and that infamous laptop, for starters. One would think he’d want to promote the image of someone who isn’t milking his father’s position for all its worth.

Many of Hunter Biden’s art pieces are untitled, but we have a suggestion for his next masterpiece: “Portrait of a Fortunate Son.”