Records: Taxpayers paid $32,000 for Trump Jr. to go to India
NEW DELHI — Government records show that taxpayers spent more than $32,000 on hotel rooms for the security detail that accompanied Donald Trump Jr. to India earlier this year to promote his family’s luxury real estate projects — with many bills still unaccounted for.
A review of General Services Administration purchase orders shows that the government paid $15,166 for rooms for “Don Jr Visit to Mumbai” and another bill for $3,501, as well as $13,468 for hotels in the western Indian city of Pune, for a total of $32,135.
A third purchase order during the same time frame in the city of Kolkata lists an additional $9,880 for a “VIP visit.” Officials at the U.S. Consulate in Kolkata declined to identify the VIP in question. The costs of the hotel rooms for the entourage’s stay in the capital — likely a hefty portion of the tab — as well as the airfare and transportation expenses remain unclear.
Trump Jr. came to India in February on a whirlwind promotional trip during which he was feted with champagne toasts and met buyers of four Trump luxury residential real estate projects in Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and outside the capital, New Delhi.
Asked about the cost of Trump Jr.’s trip, Catherine Milhoan, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service, said: “As a matter of practice, the U.S. Secret Service does not comment on the specifics of protectees’ trips.” A State Department spokeswoman said the department does not discuss the details of security matters.
The Trump Organization did not respond to emails requesting comment.
This week, Quentin L. Kopp, vice chairman of the San Francisco Ethics Commission, filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that the Secret Service is failing to comply with his Freedom of Information Act request seeking details on the cost of Trump Jr.’s India trip.
“It’s private business at the expense of taxpayers,” Kopp said Tuesday outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’m a taxpayer. I resent it.”