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 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 Bezos’ $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.
Jim Bachman says
The Hill William is used to a lot of vacations
Maria Grant says
Say more.
Bob Kopec says
Impeach, convict, remove from office for this waste of $$. Then sentence and jail for the rape and tax cheating in NY.
John Eginton says
You did not mention the cost of buyouts for the many federal workers who are now being paid to not show up.
Maria Grant says
Excellent point!
Judith Zinter says
Thank you Maria Grant! I am a long time resident of DC and am horrified at what is happening in our city. My husband and I have relatives in other partsof the country; they don’t seem too concerned. One said Trump was just “being ornery”.
I realized what was needed was exactly the information in your article…this is their tax money paying for all of this.
I Think one more number would be helpful…how much of their tax dollar goes toward interest on all the funds being borrowed to pay for all of this outrageousness.
Maria Grant says
Judith, thanks for writing. I will do some research on exactly how much the increase in the national debt is costing taxpayers.
Matt LaMotte says
MAGA voted for Trump and we all have live with it. If there’s a better example of the Dunning-Krueger Effect than Donald J. Trump, I’d like to know who it is. Just sayin’…
Maury Schlesinger says
Trust. Trust is what civil societies rely upon to maintain peace and order; trust that people will obey the law, trust that people will live up to their word. We trust that cars will stay on their side of the white line. We trust that banks will have our money when we ask for it. We trust that our partners will be faithful. We trust that our commercial agreements will be honored. We trust that those in our government will execute their duties fairly and equitably.
But those currently in power are not trustworthy. The leader of our country broke the trust of three wives. He’s been found guilty of sexual harassment and falsifying business records. He has failed to follow through on his commercial contracts, stiffing people who have worked for him. He has told his supporters one thing, and done something else. Is he a man who can be trusted?
And now in office, he has worked to erode trust in our civil institutions. He questions the validity of judges’ decisions. He demands loyalty oaths from civil servants; has politicized the military. And he has brought doubt on the validity of our election system.
Is this a man who can be trusted with the ability to bring on a nuclear war?
But one man alone cannot destroy our society. He has accomplices. Members of his administration ignore court rulings and fail to enforce laws they may not like. They are spending funds not appropriated, and not spending funds on programs the Congress authorized. The Republicans in Congress have essentially given him a blank check as the deficit grows larger, despite their rhetoric of “fiscal responsibility.” They have failed the public trust to control a potential tyrant who makes proclamations (“Executive Orders”) for which he does not have the authority. They have the power to remove him. But for their own political and possible financial benefit, they have chosen to keep him in office. They have lost our trust as well.
Our forefathers lost trust in their king, for the king failed to adhere to his part of the governing agreement – to trust the people with freedom. As a result, they wrote these words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. “
Maria Grant says
Thank you so much for this eloquent comment.
Michael Davis says
Thank you for being a standard contributor to the Spy. I appreciate everything you write. Yesterday I exhausted myself writing comments in response to a column by one of your colleagues that I felt was completely false. Not just “another side the issue,” but as false as any any of the lies uttered by Donald Trump.
In my 40+ years working for the government as an employee and contractor, the VAST majority of the waste I saw was directed by Congress and President Reagan. Now massive waste is being directed by Donald J. Trump. Thank you for being on the truth-side of the “other side.”
Maria Grant says
Michael, thank you for reading my columns. I read your comment on another comment and couldn’t agree more.
Charles Barranco says
Excellent article with thorough research. Unfortunately, the people who should be reading this and understanding the depths of corruption in this administration are few, others are in denial.
Maria Grant says
Charles thank you for writing. I know and that’s what is beyond depressing. Clearly America needs a major wake-up call.
christine durham says
Exactly!