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When President Twitter/Selfish Twat goes visiting…

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Kiwithrottlejockey
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« on: March 23, 2017, 05:46:35 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Trump's Florida visits puts small airport in tailspin

By TERRY SPENCER | Friday, February 17, 2017

Jorge Gonzalez, of Skywords Advertising, is seen with his Piper Super Cub at the hangar he rents at Lantana Airport in Latana, Florida. Gonzalez said during a meeting with U.S. Representative Lois Frankel that he might have to shutter his business if President Trump continues to visit Palm Beach and close the air space on weekends. — Photograph: Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/Associated Press.
Jorge Gonzalez, of Skywords Advertising, is seen with his Piper Super Cub at the hangar he rents at Lantana Airport in Latana, Florida. Gonzalez
said during a meeting with U.S. Representative Lois Frankel that he might have to shutter his business if President Trump continues to visit
Palm Beach and close the air space on weekends. — Photograph: Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/Associated Press.


LANTANA, FLORIDA — President Donald Trump wants small businesses to thrive, but his frequent Mar-a-Lago visits have flight schools and other companies at a nearby airport in a financial nosedive.

The Secret Service closed Lantana Airport on Friday for the third straight weekend because of the president's return to his Palm Beach resort, meaning its maintenance companies, a banner-flying business and another two dozen businesses are also shuttered, costing them thousands of dollars at the year's busiest time. The banner-flying company says it has lost more than $40,000 in contracts already.

The airport, which handles only small, propeller-driven planes and helicopters, is about 6 miles southwest of Mar-a-Lago, well within the 10-mile circle around the resort that’s closed to most private planes when he's in town. Trump flies into Palm Beach International Airport, which is 2.5 miles from Mar-a-Lago, and remains opens as it handles commercial flights. Small private planes can also use that airport during presidential visits if they meet certain stringent conditions.

The Lantana owners are pushing compromises they say will ensure Trump's security while keeping their businesses open. They involve letting pilots fly in a closely monitored corridor headed away from the resort until they are outside a 10-mile ban around Mar-a-Lago and a 30-mile zone where flying lessons are restricted. Pilots, planes and cargo would undergo preflight screening by Transportation Security Administration agents.

“None of us are suggesting that we shouldn't do everything to keep the president safe but we believe there are things that can be done to keep us in operation,” said Jonathan Miller, the contractor who operates the Palm Beach County-owned airport.

The airport and its 28 businesses have an economic impact of about $27 million annually and employ about 200 people full-time, many of them making about $30,000 a year. They don't get paid when the airport is closed.

Miller is already losing a helicopter company, which is moving rather than deal with the closures. That will cost him $440,000 in annual rent and fuel sales.

White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham directed questions to the Secret Service. The agency also declined comment. Flight restrictions have long been standard around buildings where a president is staying to protect him from an airborne attack.

U.S. Representative Lois Frankel, a Democrat who represents the area, met with the business owners this week. She said she will meet with the Secret Service next week to see if a compromise can be reached.

Lantana Airport opened in 1941 as a Civil Air Patrol station, with planes flying along the coast during World War II to spot German submarines attempting to sink cargo ships. Today, the 300-acre, three-runway facility handles an average of 350 arrivals and departures daily, peaking on winter weekends as tourists enjoy South Florida's temperate weather. Summer, with its stifling, visitor-repelling heat and the constant threat of plane-grounding thunderstorms, is not nearly as lucrative.

Marian Smith, owner of Palm Beach Flight Training, said her 19-year-old business is losing 24 flights daily when closed and three students cancelled. She lost $28,000 combined the last two weekends and will lose $18,000 on this President's Day weekend. She estimates her 19 instructors are each losing up to $750 a weekend.

“What's frustrating is that we get little notice when this is going to happen,” she said.

This week, rumors began during Monday. The closure notice arrived on Wednesday.

David Johnson, owner of Palm Beach Aircraft Services, said his 27-year-old repair and maintenance business generates $2 million in sales annually, but has taken a hit over the last month and he fears it will cascade if flight schools like Smith's close. He has written a letter he hopes gets delivered to Trump this weekend asking him, one businessman to another, to help resolve the conflict.

“Even if the TSA had to screen every pilot going out of here, we would be open to that,” Johnson said. “But so far, we've gotten nothing.”

Jorge Gonzalez, owner of SkyWords Advertising, a banner towing service, said his company lost four contracts totaling $42,500 because of Trump's visits. He wants exceptions made for three pilots to fly within the restricted zone when the president visits because it is where thousands of residents live and tourists stay.

“We have spent 10 years building this business,” said Gonzalez's wife, Hadley Doyle-Gonzalez. “We just can't pick up and move.”


Associated Press news story.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/small-airport-businesses-to-trump-your-florida-visits-hurt/2017/02/17/a2cfddba-f535-11e6-9fb1-2d8f3fc9c0ed_story.html
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« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2017, 05:48:03 pm »


from the Los Angeles Times....

South Florida pilots learning that skies are less friendly
with airspace restrictions during Trump visits


By LISA J. HURIASH | 2:45PM PST - Saturday, March 04, 2017

Air Force One lands in Palm Beach, Florida. At least 27 aircraft have violated airspace restrictions near President Trump's estate. — Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press.
Air Force One lands in Palm Beach, Florida. At least 27 aircraft have violated airspace restrictions near President Trump's estate.
 — Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press.


SOME PILOTS just aren't getting the message: They can't come and go as they please across South Florida's skies like they used to, at least not when the president is in town.

Since last month, at least 27 aircraft have violated a temporary restriction on the airspace near President Trump's estate in Palm Beach, federal officials say. And it's going to take some time and anxious moments for South Florida's aviation community to get used to it, experts say.

When President George W. Bush visited his ranch south of Dallas at the beginning of his presidency in 2001, there was a learning curve for pilots who “went out flying on a Saturday and didn't check,” recalls aviation attorney and former U.S. Air Force officer David Norton of Dallas.

If aviators don't comply, they'll be stunned to see a fighter pilot hanging off their wing, he said.

“The flying community will get used to it and they need to be careful: It can really catch you off guard,” he said.

With Mar-a-Lago serving as Trump's winter White House, South Florida faces becoming “real quiet” on weekends for air traffic, said Janet Marnane, a former Navy flight officer during the Cold War.

“These pilots are not used to having so many [restrictions] in this area, but they are going to get used to it real fast,” said Marnane, an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. “It is going to be the new normal, but only on the weekends.”

To heighten awareness of the restrictions, the Federal Aviation Administration says it plans to do more outreach to educate local pilots.

The president's schedule this weekend included a tour of an Orlando Catholic school for a meet-and-greet Friday, before he traveled to Palm Beach, where he was to attend the Republican National Committee spring retreat.

Trump is spending his fourth weekend in South Florida since becoming president; the three prior weekend visits came back-to-back in February.

Each time he visits, pilots within a 30-mile ring around the mansion must abide by the rules — or risk being intercepted by Air Force fighter jets.


President Donald J. Trump arrives at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. — Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
President Donald J. Trump arrives at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. — Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

During the president's visits to Mar-a-Lago in February, dozens of local aviators violated the airspace restrictions, including 14 times between February 17th and February 20th.

The FAA has declined to release the names of the pilots who violated the airspace restrictions or discuss their cases, citing ongoing investigations.

Pilots violating airspace restrictions might get off with a warning, but presidential-related intrusions likely will lead to a license suspension, Norton said.

Violators, after being forced to land, will “be met by Secret Service and you are going to spend many hours explaining why you were there,” Norton said.

Michael Kucharek, a spokesman for North American Aerospace Defense Command based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said that fighter pilots scrambled to intercept planes in restricted airspace will often try to first get a pilot's attention with visual hand signals.

If that fails, they’ll “rock the wings,” which means the military jet will fly in front for attention and sway to each side signaling for the pilot to follow.

Another attention-grabbing method: the release of flares that are “essentially dropped in front of the pilot if all these other things don't work," he said.

Shooting down a plane “remains an option” although “that would be a very bad day,” he said.

One notable violation occurred last month when two Air Force F-15s hit supersonic speeds to intercept an aircraft, causing a sonic boom that residents heard from Broward to Palm Beach counties.

“I thought it was an actual bomb,” said Coral Springs Mayor Skip Campbell. “The house shook; you felt it vibrate.”

Jets having to reach supersonic speeds, about 750 mph, to intercept a violator is “atypical” and “situationally dependent,” Kucharek said. “We prefer not to go sonic over populated areas. It's done with the utmost caution so as not to alarm folks on the ground.”

Despite the FAA's outreach efforts, officials say it's up to pilots to safely conduct their flights. They're responsible for checking notices as part of their flight preparations so they're aware of any presidential-airspace issues that could affect them.

Pilots who hop on their aircraft for no other reason than to “buy a gallon of milk” will need to start checking in to learn of restrictions, said Michael Anthony Punziano, the owner of ATA Flight School in Pembroke Pines south of Palm Beach and a retired Air Force pilot.

“I wish he [trump] was golfing at Camp David like Obama used to do,” he said.


Lisa J. Huriash reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-trump-airspace-20170304-story.html
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« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2017, 05:48:49 pm »


What a SELFISH TWAT Donald Trump is....putting local jobs at risk.

Somebody should lock him up in a cage at the White House.

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« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2017, 05:49:53 pm »


from The Washington Post....

‘He's baaaack!’: Trump's visits to Mar-a-Lago are stretching
Palm Beach's budget and locals' patience


Trump's visits have cost the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office more than $1.5 million.

By ABBY PHILLIP and LORI ROZSA | 10:55PM EDT - Monday, March 20, 2017

President Trump has visited his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on more than half of the weekends since his inauguration. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
President Trump has visited his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on more than half of the weekends since his inauguration.
 — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.


PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — It is high season in South Florida: blue skies, low humidity, warm temperatures and increasingly regular visits from the president of the United States.

With those visits, the busiest time of year for residents of Palm Beach has taken on a new unpleasantness. Airplane noise, traffic, and a rash of angry confrontations between pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators are beginning to seem like the new normal.

“He's baaaack!” one resident warned on a neighborhood blog. “Get out your earplugs it is going to be another noisy weekend!”

President Trump's trips here — which have added up to more than half of the weekends since his inauguration — are also forcing a brewing budgetary crisis for Palm Beach County, which faces the prospect of millions of dollars in unexpected costs associated with helping to secure the president's luxury estate.

“I'm not sure that anyone understood that when the president referred to Mar-a-Lago as the ‘southern White House’, he really intended to visit almost every week,” said Representative Theodore E. Deutch (Democrat-Florida), who represents Palm Beach and is pushing for federal appropriators to address the growing costs. “There are a lot of people who come to Palm Beach County over the entire winter to enjoy the weather and enjoy the golfing.”

“When the president chooses to do the same thing, it raises a whole host of other issues,” he added.

County officials are warning about the ballooning costs associated with paying time and a half to sheriff's deputies to secure the president's exclusive members-only club — a price tag that is already more than $1.5 million — and county commissioners are pleading with federal officials to step in and relieve the financial burden.

“I would never consider a proposal that says we're not going to use our county resources when the president's here. It's our patriotic duty,” said County Commissioner David Kerner. “It's just unfair that burden should be borne alone.”

Kerner has proposed one solution: levying a “special benefit” fee on Mar-a-Lago to recoup some of the cost. The alternative, according to Kerner, is raising taxes for everyone or making cuts to the budget.

Doing that could imperil proposals to allocate more county money to combat opioid abuse and to hire more sheriff's deputies next year.

“Those are real issues: keeping cops off the street and diminishing our opioid epidemic response,” Kerner said.

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, who has known Trump for 25 years, met privately with the president in February at Mar-a-Lago.

“I told him we were incurring these expenses, and he said, ‘I'm going to take care of law enforcement’,” Bradshaw said. “We were having a conversation, and he said, ‘I'm a big supporter of law enforcement; you guys are doing a good job down here with the Secret Service, and I don't expect that you guys are doing it for free’. So he gets it; he knows what's happening.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether the president thinks the county should be reimbursed for the cost of assisting in his security.

Once just another celebrity living on what locals call “millionaires' row,” Trump is now the leader of the free world, and along with straining the county's budget, his presence has upended some of the carefree peace of his winter enclave.

A local airport faces “devastation,” officials say, as a result of flight restrictions. Residents in neighborhoods nearby complain about the constant rumbling of commercial flights redirected over their homes.

“They'll start with the planes going over at 5:30 a.m.,” said Carol Canright, a West Palm Beach resident. “You have to turn up the volume to hear over it.”

Local real estate agent Linda Cullen said flights take off over her house every three minutes when Trump is in town.

“You would think that he would be open to some way of softening the impact,” she said.

Meanwhile, a 15-minute drive from Mar-a-Lago, the president's presence has all but shut down the small local airport. On a South Florida weekend like this past one, with clear skies, sunshine and a slight breeze, activity around the Lantana Airport should be at its busiest.

“It's a perfect day,” said Altaf Hussain, owner of Pilot Training Center, a flight school based at the airport. “This place should be buzzing.”

It's one of the nation's busiest general-aviation airports for flight training, and winter weekends are the prime time for students to practice their skills in the air. These weekends are also popular with tourists renting flights to cruise above the nearby beaches, and for banner planes taking off with advertisements unfurling from their tails. More than two dozen businesses employing 400 people operate out of the airport.

Instead of overseeing flights, Hussain sat outside his hangar Saturday, his five Cessna 172 fixed-wing planes parked nearby, grounded for the weekend by a “temporary flight restriction” order from the Secret Service — the highest level of restrictions aimed at pilots, used whenever the president is in town.

For the first time on Saturday, Hussain and other business owners at Lantana were told by the Secret Service that not only were they prohibited from flying, they couldn't even start their engines for regular maintenance.

So Hussain spent his morning putting together a barbecue grill.

“The weekend flights are 33 percent of my business,” he said. “I'm surviving, but I don't know how much longer. I lose $8,500 a weekend when we're shut down. For a small guy like me, that's a lot of money.”

Jonathan Miller, who operates the airport, told the Associated Press last month that a helicopter company has decided to move elsewhere, costing Lantana $440,000 in annual rent and fuel sales.

“It's a ghost town,” Ryan Dougherty said as he worked on a plane at a Lantana hangar. Dougherty works at Florida Aero Paint, painting helicopters and other aircraft. “We can't even get UPS deliveries. Every time this happens, it sets us back four days. Customers don't want to wait that long.”

Local and federal officials met recently for more than two hours with the Secret Service, which explained that the airport's proximity to Mar-a-Lago meant that making special accommodations for Lantana was impossible.

The situation could be a one-two financial punch for the county as well, which owns the airport but leases it to tenant businesses. Since the start of the year, the county's profits from operating Lantana have grown smaller and smaller, according to Kerner, the county commissioner. And officials may be forced to aid the small businesses hit hardest by the flight restrictions.

“It's just devastation,” Kerner said. “I'm going to have to fight for those businesses in the county budget, and maybe rent rebates or some sort of subsidy that way.”

Recently, residents have noticed a military-grade radar parked in an open lot on the airport's grounds, one more sign of the permanence of their new normal.

“There's federal infrastructure coming in,” Kerner commented.

If there is a silver lining, it is that Trump's visits could boost an already thriving tourism industry in Palm Beach.

Visits to Palm Beach County were up to record levels before Trump took office — 7.35 million visitors for 2016, above 6.9 million the year before, according to Ashley Svarney, director of public relations and communications for Discover the Palm Beaches, the local tourism promotion agency.

“So far this year, the numbers are pretty good, but it's too early to tell,” she said.

But having the media covering Trump at his beachside estate during the height of the tourist season has its benefits, she said.

“When people see the photos and video of the crystal-clear blue skies, the turquoise waters, the beautiful homes, it may make them think more about visiting,” Svarney said.

Some of the visitors to the area around Mar-a-Lago are arriving less to enjoy the beautiful scenery than to take part in the intense political debate ushered in by Trump's election.

West Palm Beach resident Christy Cary planted herself on the thin stretch of beach lining a narrow two-lane road a few hundred feet from Mar-a-Lago on a recent Saturday morning. She took a last puff of her cigarette and stared out over the water as a heavily armed Coast Guard boat floated by.

“I just think it's such a beautiful, lovely place; I come down here and spread some support,” said Cary, who that day donned her “I'm an adorable deplorable: Trump 2016” T-shirt.

Cary and several friends, all Trump supporters, have made a habit of coming to the beach to counter anti-Trump protesters who also tend to gather here when the president is in town.

“We're all down here being peaceful all day until they come, and then it starts,” Cary said of the protesters. Her friend Jennifer, a vocal Trump supporter, is the one who engages, Cary said.

“She'll stay down here until everyone’s gone, [that] type of girl,” Cary said. “That's why we always drive separate.”

Cary has less patience with the protesters.

“I don't like being cussed at,” she added.

During Sunday afternoon, her efforts paid off. As Trump's motorcade passed Cary and her friends waving and cheering, the president waved back and later summoned them to meet him at Mar-a-Lago.

“I'm like, what am I supposed to say to the president?” Cary said, dazed, after the meeting. “It still doesn't even really feel real.”


• Abby Phillip is a national political reporter covering the White House for The Washington Post.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • At Mar-a-Lago, a new world of security, gawking tourists and a president-elect

 • VIDEO: Mar-a-Lago isn't just Trump's vacation spot; it's his second White House

 • PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY: See what President Trump has been doing since taking office


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hes-baaaack-trumps-visits-to-mar-a-lago-are-stretching-palm-beachs-budget-and-locals-patience/2017/03/19/9f87d3cc-0cc0-11e7-9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html
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« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2017, 05:50:26 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Secret Service asked for $60 million extra for
Trump-era travel and protection, documents show


The funding request, which was rejected, offers the most detailed estimate
yet of rising costs related to the first family's elaborate lifestyle.


By DREW HARWELL and AMY BRITTAIN | 8:01PM EDT - Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Secret Service members wait with a motorcade before President-elect Donald Trump disembarks his plane in Hebron, Kentucky, on December 1st, 2016. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.
Secret Service members wait with a motorcade before President-elect Donald Trump disembarks his plane in Hebron, Kentucky,
on December 1st, 2016. — Photograph: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post.


THE U.S. Secret Service requested $60 million in additional funding for the next year, offering the most precise estimate yet of the escalating costs for travel and protection resulting from the unusually complicated lifestyle of the Trump family, according to internal agency documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

Nearly half of the additional money, $26.8 million, would pay to protect President Trump's family and private home in New York's Trump Tower, the documents show, while $33 million would be spent on travel costs incurred by “the president, vice president and other visiting heads of state.”

The documents, part of the Secret Service's request for the fiscal 2018 budget, reflect the costly surprise facing Secret Service agents tasked with guarding the president's large and far-flung family, accommodating their ambitious travel schedules and fortifying the three-floor Manhattan penthouse where first lady Melania Trump and son Barron live.

Trump has spent most of his weekends since the inauguration at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and his sons have traveled the world to promote Trump properties with Secret Service agents in tow.

The documents reviewed by The Washington Post did not show how the new budget requests compare with the funding needs for past presidents, and such figures are not public information. The Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency, declined to provide cost breakdowns and have said in the past that such figures are confidential, citing security concerns.

A person familiar with internal Secret Service budget discussions said the requests for additional funding, prepared in late February, were rejected by the Office of Management and Budget, an arm of the White House. That means the agency will probably have to divert other spending to handle the additional burden. While best known for protecting the president, Secret Service agents also investigate cyber­crimes, counterfeit-money operations, and cases involving missing and exploited minors.

The Secret Service declined to respond to questions after The Post provided a summary of the documents. The service referred questions to DHS, which also declined to comment. The White House referred questions to the Secret Service and the Office of Management and Budget, which did not initially respond to requests for comment. After the article was posted online on Wednesday, an OMB staffer issued a statement to The Post saying that the Secret Service is continuing to refine its budgetary estimates. The staffer also said that the claim that OMB denied the $26.8 million request for Trump Tower and family expenses was “outright untrue” and that OMB “supported its funding.”

The budget requests reflect a potentially awkward contrast between Trump's efforts to cut federal spending in many areas and the escalating costs of his travel itinerary. Trump jetted to Mar-a-Lago on Friday for his fifth post-inauguration weekend trip, one day after the White House released a federal budget proposing deep cuts to many government programs.

Former agents said the requests indicate that the agency had to adapt to offer full protection for a president and first family who appear to have placed few limits on their personal travel and living arrangements.

“The Secret Service cannot dictate the lifestyle of the protectee. They have to work around it,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a 14-year Secret Service employee who is now executive director of the risk-mitigation company RANE. “I don't think they expected him to go to Florida so often.

“This was an unanticipated reality,” he added, for which the Secret Service “had to quickly re­adjust operations.”

Some of the public funding could potentially become revenue for Trump's private company, the Trump Organization, which owns the Trump Tower that agents must now protect. The Defense Department and Secret Service have sought to rent space in Trump Tower but have not said how much space they're interested in, or at what cost. Neither the Secret Service nor the Trump Organization have disclosed how much public money, if any, is being spent toward Trump Tower space or other costs.

The Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.

The Secret Service would not provide any details on the typical budget for protecting the first family. The agency requested $734 million for its fiscal 2017 “operations and support” protection budget, which would include the expenses for all protected individuals and foreign heads of state, DHS budget documents show.

The $26.8 million funding request says the money is needed for “residence security operations at the president's private residence in Trump Tower,” with roughly $12.5 million earmarked to cover “personnel related costs in New York.”

The money would also go toward protective assignments for the president's children and grandchildren, as well as costs for “protective advances and protective intelligence activities.” The request also sought six additional full-time-equivalent positions for the Trump security details.

The $26.8 million budget item is marked as $0 in previous years, which former Secret Service agents said probably meant that the costs were part of a new budget category designed to encapsulate the unusual expense of protecting the first lady and the president's youngest son because they live outside the White House.

There were also additional undisclosed costs, spent in fiscal 2017, to install “equipment and infrastructure to secure Trump Tower,” according to the request.

W. Ralph Basham, a longtime Secret Service employee who served as director under President George W. Bush, said that the agency clearly had no “crystal ball” to predict Trump's victory and, thus, had not accounted for the price tag of his presidency.

“The expense of taking on a family like the Trumps versus taking on a family like the Clintons,” he said. “It's a totally different funding scenario.”


Banke International director Niraj Masand, far left, poses for a photo with Eric Trump, Banke International director Porush Jhunjhunwala, Donald Trump Jr. and DAMAC Properties Chairman Hussain Sajwani during festivities marking the formal opening of the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai on February 18th. — Photograph: Associated Press.
Banke International director Niraj Masand, far left, poses for a photo with Eric Trump, Banke International
director Porush Jhunjhunwala, Donald Trump Jr. and DAMAC Properties Chairman Hussain Sajwani during
festivities marking the formal opening of the Trump International Golf Club in Dubai on February 18th.
 — Photograph: Associated Press.


New York City boasts some of the highest real estate prices in the nation, and Basham noted that the Secret Service “does not have the liberty of going out in New Jersey” to find cheap rental space. “You have to be there,” he said, referring to Trump Tower.

Basham said it is difficult to pinpoint exact expenses at this stage in the budget process. But he estimated that the $26.8 million request would probably include costs for command centers, agents' room and board, communications expenses and rental space.

Jeffrey Robinson, co-author of the book Standing Next to History: An Agent's Life Inside the Secret Service with former Secret Service agent Joseph Petro, said the logistics of protecting Trump Tower are “a nightmare” because of its easily accessible location on Fifth Avenue.

“They have to secure Trump Tower because Melania is there,” Robinson said. “They protect the first family. They have to protect the grandchildren. This is going to be an expensive operation.”

Robinson said the budget request is not surprising, considering that the agency is mandated by Congress to protect the president. “They need the money that they need,” he said.

A separate travel-funding request seeks $33 million on top of the agency's $74 million fiscal 2018 protection-travel budget. The document justifies the request by saying that Secret Service travel, in general, is “extremely variable, difficult to predict and difficult to plan for in advance as many protectees' travel plans are unknown with limited time to prepare.”

The request does not specifically name Mar-a-Lago, and the travel budget changes year to year based on many factors. The total protective travel budget for fiscal 2015 was about $80 million. That figure climbed to $160 million in the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, when agents were protecting multiple candidates.

But former agents said that, typically, costs go down in the first year of a new presidency.

Before taking office, Trump repeatedly criticized the cost of President Barack Obama's travel, saying the fact that Obama's trips were “costing taxpayers millions of dollars” was “unbelievable.” During the campaign, Trump pledged to save public money by working diligently in Washington and skipping out on expensive travel.

“There's no time for vacation. We're not going to be big on vacations,” Trump said at a campaign rally last year. “The White House is this incredible place. It represents so much, and you're there for a limited period of time. If you're at the White House and you have so much work to do, why do you fly? Why do you leave so much?”

The conservative group Judicial Watch, which closely tracked Obama's family travel, estimated the Obamas' vacation expenses totaled nearly $97 million over eight years.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Monday countered criticism of Trump's frequent travel to Mar-a-Lago, saying: “The president is very clear that he works seven days a week. This is where he goes to see his family. He brings people down there. This is part of being president.”

Experts say that it is common for incoming presidential administrations to have unique logistical challenges, including George W. Bush, who preferred to spend time at his remote ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Mar-a-Lago has quickly become a capital of Trump's presidency and will play host to Chinese President Xi Jinping next month. On Friday night, the president surprised attendees when he popped into a Mar-a-Lago Club charity event to congratulate honoree Patrick Park, a Palm Beach philanthropist who has said he hopes to be named U.S. ambassador to Austria.

The Secret Service's protection costs are a small fraction of the total public spending devoted to safe­guarding Trump properties. New York police spent roughly $24 million toward security costs at Trump Tower between the election and inauguration, according to police figures provided to The Washington Post.

The agency is seeking federal reimbursement for the security costs. When the president is in town, New York police expect to spend about $300,000 a day safeguarding Trump Tower. On days when only the first lady and their son are in town, police expect security costs will drop to between $127,000 and $145,000 a day. A police spokesman said the estimates could change based on officer deployments, intelligence and other factors.

At Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach County officials say their sheriff's office has spent more than $1.5 million toward overtime for deputies guarding the exclusive resort Trump has taken to calling “the southern White House” and “winter White House.”

County officials have proposed levying a special fee on the resort, saying they would have to otherwise raise local taxes on residents to help cover its high security costs. The Coast Guard has also paid to provide round-the-clock patrols of the resort's two coastlines, including through the use of a gun-mounted response boat that, according to agency budget documents, costs $1,500 an hour.

The Secret Service has struggled through years of budget shortages and low morale. Former Secret Service agents said tightening budgets have hit agents hard and that, unlike other agencies, the Secret Service can't travel less or staff fewer people to keep costs down because full protection for the first family is guaranteed.

“Everything will get done,” said Wackrow, the former agent who served in Obama's protective detail. “But at what pain point does it get done?”


Carol Leonnig, Devlin Barrett, Julie Tate and Alice Crites contributed to this report.

• Drew Harwell is a national business reporter at The Washington Post.

• Amy Brittain is a reporter for The Washington Post's investigative team.

__________________________________________________________________________

Read more on this topic:

 • Trump family's elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-asked-for-60-million-extra-for-trump-era-travel-and-protection-documents-show/2017/03/22/0967e7b6-0a85-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html
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« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2017, 10:34:42 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Nearly 1 out of every 3 days he has been president,
Trump has visited a Trump property


He has made 13 visits to his own golf courses since becoming president,
likely playing golf on at least 12 of those occasions.


By PHILIP BUMP | 1:42PM EDT - Sunday, March 26, 2017

President Trump's motorcade arrives at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, on March 25th. — Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters.
President Trump's motorcade arrives at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia, on March 25th.
 — Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters.


FOR THE eighth weekend in a row, President Trump has visited a property that bears his name. He has done so on 21 of the 66 days he has been in office, meaning that for the equivalent of three full weeks of his just-over-nine weeks as commander in chief, he has spent all or part of a day at a Trump property — earning that property mentions in the media and the ability to tell potential clients that they might be able to interact with the president. And, despite his insistence on the campaign trail that he would avoid the links — “I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf,” he said in August — he has made 13 visits to his own golf courses since becoming president, likely playing golf on at least 12 of those occasions.

Below, a breakdown of Trump's visits to his properties. They include:


  • Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C.

  • Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia.

  • Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

  • Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.



Trump has announced that he plans to host the Chinese president at Mar-a-Lago next month.

The one occasion on which he went to a golf course but clearly didn’t play golf came Sunday, when he made a relatively short visit to Trump National during which, his team says, he held three meetings. Last week, press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump's visits to golf courses didn't necessarily mean he was playing golf.

“Just because you go somewhere doesn't necessarily mean you did it,” Spicer told reporters. “So, on a couple of occasions, he's actually conducted meetings there, he's actually had phone calls. So, just because he heads there, it doesn't mean that that's what's happening.”

On every occasion, save the visit on Sunday, Trump has spent multiple hours at the club, usually out of view of the media. On some occasions, such as on Saturday, social media posts emerge showing him on the course.

As of writing, it's not clear who was included in Trump's three meetings at Trump National. A post on Instagram tagged at the club on Sunday appears to show Trump and two other people watching television in the course's clubhouse.





If Trump traveled to Trump National for meetings, it raises another question: Couldn't those meetings have been held at the White House?

• Philip Bump is a correspondent for The Washington Post based in New York City.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related media:

 • PHOTOGRAPH GALLERY: See what President Trump has been doing since taking office


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/26/nearly-one-out-of-every-three-days-he-has-been-president-trump-has-visited-a-trump-property
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« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2017, 12:48:53 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Coast Guard wants to kick boats off Potomac River when president is golfing

Canoes, kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, sailboats, jet-skis, motorboats and anglers will be periodically cleared
off the roughly two miles of waterway along Trump National Golf Course as part of the new “security zone”.


By PETER JAMISON | 3:56PM EDT - Monday, July 17, 2017

With the Trump National Golf Club clubhouse in the background, Camp Calleva kayak instructor Steve McKone helps one of his campers while teaching a lesson on the Potomac River on Monday. — Photograph: Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post.
With the Trump National Golf Club clubhouse in the background, Camp Calleva kayak instructor Steve McKone helps one of his campers while
teaching a lesson on the Potomac River on Monday. — Photograph: Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post.


THE Trump family has offended many sectors of establishment Washington since their arrival in the nation’s capital, from Langley's spymasters to mansion-dwellers in the District's Kalorama neighborhood.

But 30 miles north of the White House, a conflict is now brewing on the banks of the Potomac River that pits the president's interests against those of a very different — if no less zealous — constituency. This one is armed with paddles.

Citing security concerns, the Coast Guard says it is adopting a policy of periodically cutting off access to roughly two miles of the Potomac where it borders Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

The restrictions would clear the water of canoes, kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, sailboats, Jet Skis, motorboats and anglers when Trump or other senior officials of his government decide to spend a day on the back nine.

The buffer zone is stoking concern and opposition among recreational users of the river. The proposed shore-to-shore security area includes Riley's Lock, the embarkation point in Maryland for a popular summer camp and a kayaking program for wounded and disabled veterans.




“It's just heartbreaking,” said John Deitle, 41, a former Marine who served a combined five tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and receives treatment at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for lung problems he says are related to chemical exposure.

Deitle paddles on this stretch of the Potomac with Team River Runner, a nonprofit that helps wounded veterans. On Sunday afternoon, he stood in a life vest at his put-in point on Seneca Creek, a faded tattoo saying “Teufel Hunden” — “Devil Dog”, a Marine nickname — showing on one of his bare upper arms.

“Granted, it's his golf course,” Deitle said. “But he has other golf courses.”

Battles over the presidential prerogative to make life inconvenient are a perennial drama in and around Washington. Former President Bill Clinton caused an uproar among crosstown commuters when, bowing to the wishes of the Secret Service, he closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to auto traffic in 1995.

But such complaints have taken on a special resonance in the Trump era, perhaps because Maryland, Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia voted overwhelmingly against the president, who brands himself as a brash interloper among Washington's swells. In March, the Secret Service's liberal blocking of precious parking space near the home of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner stirred a revolt among their neighbors in Kalorama. In April, the Secret Service barred pedestrians from the sidewalk along the White House's southern fence.

The sweeping new security measures proposed near Trump National seem to have come as a particular blow to the tightly knit clan of paddlers on this half-mile-wide section of the Potomac, which courses slowly past shores shaded by sycamore and black walnut before turning into light rapids.

“It's a sharing culture out here, and it feels strange to have somebody not sharing,” said Ashley Nee, a kayaker who competed for Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and is training for 2020 on the affected stretch of river.

It is not the first time Trump National has been the scene of a river-related controversy. In 2010, the golf club cut down hundreds of trees along the shoreline — an action that, some paddlers say, created the open sightline to the course that now compromises the president's security.

Officials at the White House and Secret Service did not respond to requests for comment.

Lieutenant Amanda Faulkner, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard, said water-access restrictions would be invoked only when the Secret Service requested them because of visits to the golf course from “high-ranking government officials.”

She declined to say who qualified as “high-ranking,” saying the Coast Guard would take direction from the Secret Service on which officials triggered the security zone. Most of the time, she said, the river would remain open.

Faulkner said the Coast Guard had already closed the river next to Trump National five times since March on an ad hoc basis. One benefit of designating a “permanent security zone,” she said, was that boaters would now know exactly what was off-limits.

“In a lot of ways this is better for the public, because they have more information,” she said. Boaters would be notified of the closures by radio and online and perhaps through news releases, she said.

The policy is in effect on an interim basis, she said, and will be made final — and adjusted, if necessary — after the Coast Guard receives public comments that must be submitted by August 9th.


Marine Corps veteran and Army reservist John Deitle, 41, carries his kayak to Seneca Creek as he heads out to navigate the Potomac River. — Photograph: Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post.
Marine Corps veteran and Army reservist John Deitle, 41, carries his kayak to Seneca Creek as he heads out to navigate the Potomac River.
 — Photograph: Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post.


Authorities' explanations for the rule have gotten a relatively cold reception among paddling organizations, which — not unlike other amateur athletic groups in the District and its affluent suburbs — have an inordinate share of bureaucratic know-how and legal firepower at their disposal.

On Sunday evening, representatives of various river groups convened an informal war council at the home of Canoe Cruisers Association board member Barbara Brown, who lives on Admirals Way in Potomac, Maryland.

Attended by 13 emissaries from different parts of the paddling community, the gathering was reminiscent of the Council of Elrond in “The Fellowship of the Ring”, as the group debated its recourse against a seemingly implacable foe.

The Canoe Cruisers Association's chairwoman, Susan Sherrod, a retired information-technology worker who was wearing a tie-dye shirt, presided over the gathering, which took place over Stella Artois and fresh cherries.

“This is a river-access issue. It's not a political issue,” Sherrod said. Asked earlier by a reporter whether she had voted for Trump, Sherrod laughed uproariously.

Yet the political tension infusing the situation was unavoidable. One meeting attendee, Howard Morland, speculated that the regulation's true purpose was to stop waterborne protests that groups from outside the region had begun staging during events at the golf course. Others wondered aloud whether impeachment proceedings would solve their problem before the end of Trump's first term. The president's avid golfing schedule during his early months in office put no one’s mind at ease.

“What they're actually saying is, ‘We want carte blanche to shut down the river between these coordinates’,” said Adam Van Grack, a Bethesda attorney who chairs the U.S. Olympic organization for kayakers and canoers and represents Calleva, a summer camp and outfitter that launches its watercraft at Riley's Lock.

Sherrod suggested they unite behind an alternative proposal that would modify the security zone to allow for a corridor of river access along the Maryland shore opposite the golf course.

Brett Mayer of the American Canoe Association, who called in to the meeting from the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River, later said in an interview that he thought some form of compromise along those lines could be struck.

“It's reasonable that the Secret Service and the Coast Guard are working together to create a secure zone. If there's a motorcade in D.C., you might have to sit there for 20 minutes and wait for the motorcade to pass,” Mayer said. “These closures, they're temporary, and they're sporadic.”

He added, “We'll do the best we can with the situation, but I don't think it's the end of the world.”


• Peter Jamison writes about politics and government in the District of Columbia. Before joining The Washington Post he worked at the Los Angeles Times and the Tampa Bay Times.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/coast-guard-wants-to-kick-boats-off-potomac-river-when-trump-is-golfing/2017/07/17/8ac56828-6afd-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html
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« Reply #7 on: July 30, 2017, 09:45:07 pm »


from The Washington Post....

Guarding Trump's Mar-a-Lago club by air and sea
has cost taxpayers $6.6 million


The Coast Guard spent about $1 million in protection expenses
every time President Trump went to his Florida estate.


By DREW HARWELL | 11:05PM EDT - Friday, July 28, 2017

U.S. Coast Guard patrol during its March watch of Lake Worth Lagoon as President Trump returns to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida. — Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press.
U.S. Coast Guard patrol during its March watch of Lake Worth Lagoon as President Trump returns to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
 — Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press.


AS THE Trump administration threatened hefty budget cuts for the U.S. Coast Guard, the military service was spending more than $6.6 million protecting the president's waterfront Mar-a-Lago Club during his seven weekend trips there this spring, documents show.

The Coast Guard deployed cutters, patrol boats, helicopters and anti-terror specialists from across the country to safeguard the luxury Palm Beach, Florida, estate.

The deployments came as Coast Guard leaders, bracing for possible budget cuts, have argued that the cash-strapped service has made painful sacrifices— letting some illegal drug shipments go and delaying certain repairs to its fleet.

The records, released on Thursday to The Washington Post in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, offer a glimpse into the intricate costs and demands for a military force tasked with defending the president during his frequent getaways to his private businesses.

They also highlight how taxpayers have helped finance the unusually elaborate lifestyle of Trump and his family in ways that can also benefit his company. In this case, Mar-a-Lago, which Trump has dubbed a “Winter White House”, is also a for-profit, members-only club.




The Coast Guard has provided security for past presidents alongside the U.S. Secret Service, including guarding former President Barack Obama during trips such as his annual family vacations to Hawaii, but officials could not immediately provide estimates for those costs.

When Obama spent a weekend in South Florida in 2013, the Coast Guard spent about $586,000 to cover patrol, travel and lodging costs, according to a Government Accountability Office report last year.

The spending at Mar-a-Lago, which comes to close to $1 million for each trip, appears to collide with the president's pledges of trimming government costs.

The Coast Guard spent more than $17.8 million on presidential security costs between October and March, offering air and waterside patrols for high-level events during the Obama and Trump administrations. That cost was up from $15.1 million in the same period ending in March 2016, and $10.7 million for the period ending in March 2015, Coast Guard records show.

The Coast Guard is brought in to protect Trump at official events as well as recreational excursions, including patrolling the Potomac River when the president plays golf at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

The Secret Service requested Coast Guard protection for Trump's Mar-a-Lago visits, which are classified as “national special security events,” Coast Guard officials said. The club has represented an expensive challenge for the service, which patrols the airspace above the estate as well as its two coastlines along the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Coast Guard's missions — including drug interdictions and port patrols — sit at the center of some of Trump's biggest campaign promises, including stricter immigration and homeland security. But leaders say the military branch has struggled to complete its mission while faced with a tightening budget and aging fleet.

The Coast Guard's commandant, Admiral Paul Zukunft, testified before a House subcommittee on Tuesday that the branch was “deferring maintenance” and running cutters and aircraft long beyond their retirement age because it needed more funding.

In a CBS interview that aired on Tuesday, Zukunft added that the Coast Guard had not pursued hundreds of potential drug shipments last year because “we didn't have enough planes, we didn't have enough ships.”

The Coast Guard's spending accounts for a fraction of the military security apparatus that has encircled Trump during journeys to his private clubs and golf courses. Congress this year allocated roughly $120 million in additional funding to help cover the Secret Service's presidential travel and protection, as well as “extraordinary law enforcement personnel costs” incurred by local governments during Trump's trips.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment. Officials have in the past defended the costs as necessary to safeguard the president's work, with White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham saying in February, “He is not vacationing when he goes to Mar-a-Lago. The president works nonstop every day of the week, no matter where he is.”

Coast Guard service members, specialists, pilots and engineers spent thousands of hours on patrol or support duties around the time of the president's 25 days at Mar-a-Lago between February and April, records show.

Gun-mounted response boats manned by four-person tactical crews spent 1,866 hours on the water, or more than 77 full days, at a cost of about $2.8 million, the documents show.

They were joined by larger watercraft, including an 87-foot Marine Protector-class patrol boat and a 154-foot fast-response cutter, which watched for threats and kept out recreational boaters in three nearby “security zones”.

Back on land, teams of armory staff, mechanics and electronics specialists worked to keep the boats running and armed. Overhead, H-65 Dolphin helicopters, traditionally used for water rescues, flew for 135 hours so as to intercept low- and slow-flying aircraft, at a cost of about $7,885 an hour.

Special anti-terror units, known as Maritime Safety and Security Teams, also deployed to Mar-a-Lago from Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Boston, New York and a naval submarine base in southeastern Georgia. Flights, mileage, lodging and other expenses for Coast Guard service members patrolling the seven Mar-a-Lago visits exceeded $720,000.

Trump gave up day-to-day management of Mar-a-Lago but still owns the private club, which took in $37.2 million in resort-related revenue between January 2016 and April 2017, financial disclosures show.

The club, which hosts banquets and weddings and offers a spa and tennis courts, doubled its initiation fee to $200,000 shortly after Trump won the election.

The White House in March proposed slashing the Coast Guard's budget by 14 percent, triggering alarms among military leaders, before promising that it would instead keep the branch's budget to “current funding levels”.

The president's latest proposal, delivered to Congress in May, cuts the Coast Guard’s budget by 2.4 percent, or about $267 million. The Secret Service's $2.1 billion budget is slated to grow less than 1 percent.

The Coast Guard, Zukunft said in April, has received no extra funding to help cover the costs of “protecting the approaches to Mar-a-Lago on both coasts … (and) in the air.” Service officials said the Presidential Protection Assistance Act restricts them from seeking reimbursement for costs associated with supporting presidential security.

The Coast Guard is one of several tax-funded agencies involved in the protection of the president's private club. Palm Beach County officials said they spent more than $60,000 a day toward costs such as deputy overtime when Trump was in town this past spring.

Trump's interest in waterfront excursions has taxed the Coast Guard in other ways. The service walked back plans this week that forbid recreational paddlers and boaters from skimming two miles of the Potomac River near the Trump golf club when the president is playing there.

The Coast Guard did not respond to questions about whether it encountered any security intrusions during its Mar-a-Lago deployments. But the service's round-the-clock patrols did report some suspicious activity to the police, including a young couple having sex on a small nearby island in April, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.


• Drew Harwell is a national business reporter at The Washington Post.

__________________________________________________________________________

Related to this topic:

 • VIDEO: Mar-a-Lago isn't just Trump's vacation spot; it's his second White House

 • The banquet business was booming at Mar-a-Lago. Then Trump became president.

 • Are President Trump's trips to Mar-a-Lago similar to Obama's travels?

 • Coast Guard faces growing costs for protecting Trump's Mar-a-Lago

 • Secret Service asked for $60 million extra for Trump-era travel and protection, documents show

 • Trump family's elaborate lifestyle is a ‘logistical nightmare’ — at taxpayer expense


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/guarding-trumps-mar-a-lago-club-by-air-and-sea-has-cost-taxpayers-66-million/2017/07/28/70dcc0f4-7224-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html
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« Reply #8 on: July 30, 2017, 10:27:46 pm »

Yes, I agree...democracy is very expensive....but quality usually is....I only thing I know of that is expensive and a dog of an investment  is the NZ taxpayers donating hundreds of millions of hard earned tax dollars to kiwirail employees every year...the most exorbitant job creation scheme on the planet😏
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« Reply #9 on: August 01, 2017, 12:06:47 am »


If you don't like paying tax in NZ, then bugger off to Jesusland.

Then you can pay tax to support Donald Trump's weekly troughing instead.

 
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« Reply #10 on: August 01, 2017, 12:12:58 am »

Yup...the old "go to " demented lefty position when they don't have an answer....😉

...have you ever actually fought for something instead of just running away....like Oh-bumma always did🙄

...or do you always think of running when presented with having to stand up ( or I guess sit down if a kiwirail employee)😉
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