PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office will receive another $25 million in funding from local taxpayers to help protect President Donald Trump, and county officials are expressing concern over reimbursement from the federal government.
On Tuesday, commissioners unanimously approved moving $25 million from the county’s general fund to cover a “shortfall” in the sheriff’s office budget.
The reallocation of funds brings the total amount for protecting President Trump in Palm Beach County to $45 million this year. The county previously moved $20 million to the sheriff’s office from its rainy-day contingency fund to cover overtime costs.
County staff estimated the security cost to taxpayers at $35 to $40 million a year during a presentation in January.
While the county still hopes to be reimbursed for costs associated with President Trump’s visits, officials expressed concern over a lack of federal funding for the Presidential Residence Protection Assistance grant. The program, run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, helped Palm Beach County get reimbursed during Trump’s first term.
However, Congress allocated less money to the grant program after President Biden was elected in 2021.
Todd Bonlarron, assistant county administrator, told commissioners he is working with lawmakers to reinstate funding for the FEMA program through a federal continuing resolution.
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Commissioner Joel Flores said it’s possible the county won’t get refunded at all.
“It’s not a slam dunk that we are going to receive the $45 million,” Flores said. “We may very well not be receiving that money back so I just want to set that expectation that we were working diligently up there but where we stand today, there is no one clear direction this is going to happen.”
In a letter written in September 2024, the county pointed out that not all security costs are covered by the grant. The letter also acknowledged the increased security spending after the first assassination attempt of Trump on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said it spent about $13.2 million on 101,984 overtime hours protecting the president from July 20 to Nov. 10, 2024.
The agency estimated it would spend $25.3 million protecting the president from Nov. 11 to March 31 — about $190,000 per day — but the daily cost would decrease on April 1.
