A government watchdog announced Tuesday that it is looking into the taxpayer-funded travel costs of President Trump’s frequent trips to his Mar-a-Lago residence in West Palm Beach, Fla.
In a letter to members of the House Oversight Committee, the Government Accountability Office said the watchdog has initiated a review of current security procedures and protocols associated with the president’s travel.
The review was requested by the committee’s ranking Democrat, Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, and Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Tom Udall of New Mexico. The request came days after Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed a North Korean missile test in full view of dinner guests on the patio at Mar-a-Lago.
“GAO will review what measures are used to protect classified information and provide secure communications capabilities when the president is away from the White House; and whether a secure space for classified communications has been established at Mar-a-Lago,” the watchdog wrote in a letter to lawmakers last week.
The GAO will also work to determine whether Secret Service and the Department of Defense have developed measures “to ensure charges for travel-related expenses in connection with providing protection for presidential trips to Mar-a-Lago are fair and reasonable.”
A Palm Beach County official told the Washington Examiner last month that the city has been forced to spend an average of $60,000 each day that the president has been in town to cover overtime pay for security officers.
The GAO issued a report in 2016 after conducting a similar review of former President Obama’s travel expenses to Hawaii, Florida and elsewhere.
