We promise to end waste, fraud, and abuse. That was the relentless mantra of the current administration’s 2024 campaign. Exactly how is that promise holding up? Let’s review the current scorecard.
Trump’s estimated golf tab for his second term surpasses $70 million. According to the website didtrumpgolftoday.com, Trump has spent almost 25 percent of his time on the course—about 61 days. The current $70 million total does not include the $600,000 recently revealed that the Secret Service is spending on golf carts and portable toilets.
The tallies are in for Trump’s military parade. The Army (U.S. taxpayers) spent $30 million on the parade which covered the cost of hauling dozens of tanks and armored vehicles by train and truck from various military bases. About 7,000 soldiers converged on D.C. while a B-2 stealth bomber and dozens of helicopters flew overhead and Army parachutes sailed by. This tab does not include the cost of the Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and local police protection.
The recent federalized National Guard deployment to California cost approximately $134 million which covered travel, housing, and food for the troops. California officials from the Governor to the Mayor of Los Angeles proclaimed the whole exercise a total waste of money.
An analysis conducted for The Intercept claims that the price tag for Trump’s military surge in D.C. is at least $1 million a day. Other analysts claim that the cost will eventually run into hundreds of millions. Trump has stated that people are going out to dinner in D.C. for the first time in a long time. The data shows exactly the opposite. Reservations for Restaurant Week are down 24 percent compared to last year and down 31 percent on particular days after the Guards arrived. Baltimore, Chicago, and other Democratic cities with Black mayors could be next. (Also, the per capita crime rate is much higher in red states than in blue States. For example, Louisiana—the home state of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson—has a violent crime rate significantly higher than the national average by more than 66 percent.)
The estimated annual cost to run Alligator Alcatraz is $450 million with each bed costing approximately $245 per day. Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the facility claiming that the proper environmental reviews were not conducted. A U.S. District Judge has ordered a halt on any further construction while the suit is being reviewed and ordered Florida to wind down operations. Florida, of course, is challenging the order or may just choose to ignore it.
J.D. Vance has taken eight vacations in seven months, including trips to Italy, India, Nantucket, Disneyland, Vermont, Greenland, and England. He also indulged in a $2,500 dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant in San Diego and a kayaking trip in Ohio where the military was asked to raise the level of the Ohio river in an effort to improve his paddling conditions.
Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, Melania Trump makes between one to three public appearances at the White House each month. She divides her time between Trump Tower, the White House, and Mar-a-Lago. According to Business Insider, her security detail at Trump Tower costs taxpayers more than $100,000 per day. Conservatively speaking, each of her flights to Mar-a-Lago cost at least $35,000. Before she officially moved to the White House in 2017, she had had racked up flight costs of $675,000. Given her extremely low White House profile, one can surmise that her travel costs during these first eight months are in the millions.
Trump is spending $1.75 million on new furniture and decorating the White House. This amount does not include the $200 million he plans to spend on the new White House ballroom which Trump claims will come from private funds. The new ballroom will house as many as 600 guests. Call me crazy, but I’m not convinced having 600 guests at the White House at the same time is a good idea. Also, the annual maintenance and operating costs for the approximately 90,000 square foot ballroom will burden taxpayers for generations to come. (The current size of the White House is 55,000 square feet.)
As part of his retribution campaign, Trump has revoked secret service protection from more than a dozen people. But now Trump has ordered 20 bodyguards to provide 24-hour protection for FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. Bongino, a former Fox News host and podcaster, is quite controversial. His protection is estimated to cost more than $2 million a year. Secretary of Defense and former weekend Fox anchor Pete Hegseth also is protected by dozens of military personnel.
Stay tuned for details about the July 4, 2026, Ultimate Fighting Championship that Trump plans to host on the south lawn of the White House. Trump claims this event could attract up to 25,000 spectators. Forget the optics of the whole concept of this event, but please agree that it sounds like a costly and time-consuming security nightmare. (I wonder how George Washington would react to celebrating Independence Day with a bloody mixed martial arts fight featuring two fighters in a cage on the White House lawn.)
Juxtaposing Trump’s lavish spending against cuts to medical research, Medicaid and Medicare, the National Park Service, university research, education, public broadcasting, the dismantling of USAID, and so much more, is a bitter pill to swallow.
Then add to the excessive spending of this administration and the travesty of the government funding cuts, the massive amounts of wealth Trump is accumulating since he won the presidency.
A New Yorker article estimates that Trump’s presidencies have brought him at least $125 million in extra profits from Mar-a-Lago. The same article estimates that Trump has made at least $27 million from campaign paraphernalia and his online store. (You can purchase a “Trump Was Right About Everything” cap for $34.99 at MAGA.com.)
Interestingly, Trump radically changed his position on cryptocurrency and promoted modifying its regulations. He and his family and cronies invested and profited substantially from this changed regulatory environment. According to Forbes, Trump has made more than $1 billion in crypto, which means his crypto holdings are worth more than any single real estate asset in his portfolio and even more than the combined value of Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower.
I get this sickening pit in my stomach when I think about the vulnerable and critically ill who will lose support under this administration while the uber wealthy basks in tax cuts and conspicuous consumption. (Think Jeff Besos’ $50 million wedding.)
In the novel The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald writes, “They were careless people–Tom and Daisy–they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
Sound familiar?
Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of the federal human capital practice of an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, music, and nature.
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