Florida Congresswoman Urges The White House To Pay For Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Visits

via Twitter

The new president of the United States and his family don’t appear to be huge fans of living in the White House. The first lady prefers to hide out in her ostentatious residence at Trump Tower in New York City, while the president likes to spend weekends at his club, Mar-a-Lago, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Since taking office in January, the president has already spent five weekends in Mar-a-Lago, raising concerns about security and the cost of his visits.

The costs of Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago are already becoming a burden to the city of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach County. So Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., sent a letter to the president outlining the mounting expenses and asked that the city and county either be compensated by the White House or that the president vacation elsewhere.

Here’s a list of expenses according to Frankel:

— The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department and Fire Rescue have spent about $70,000 in overtime and more than $1.7 million to date. The county expects to pay as much as $5.8 million by year’s end.

— An upcoming visit of the Chinese delegation at Mar-a-Lago will cost at least $280,000.

— West Palm Beach has already paid $60,000 in police overtime to patrol protests.

— Stellar Aviation, the company that manages the Palm Beach County Airport, has already lost $170,000 due to flight restrictions imposed by the federal government whenever Trump visits. Other airport companies claim to have collectively lost around $720,000 to date.

Lois Frankel via Twitter

“While we want the fullest protection for your visits, we hope you would be responsive to the losses of small businesses and residents of Palm Beach County,” Frankel wrote in a letter to Trump on Monday. “If compensation is not assured of being forthcoming, we respectfully ask that you curtail your visits until such time as that matter is resolved favorably to our area.”

If Frankel is asking for Trump to pay up personally, good luck. Trump has a long history of not paying his bills. But he’ll probably be more generous this time because he’s playing with the White House’s money.