PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump has spent many of his weekends during his first 100 days in office at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach at his nearby golf courses.
I'm taking a deep dive into the incidents since January and the cost of protecting a president.
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The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office co-ordinates the massive protection effort with the US Secret Service.
I’ve been pressing Palm Beach County officials for the local costs of overtime pay for deputies, and the extra equipment needed in the protection.
They estimate it will run local taxpayers between $45-and 60 million this year.
Palm Beach County Mayor Maria Marino wants the federal government to re-imburse those costs.
“I’m very confident,” said Mayor Marino, noting
The federal government has footed the bill for local protection for all recent Presidents on their retreats away from the nation’s capital.
“I’m hoping we get reimbursed for that. We have in the past,” said Marino, noting the county got money during Donald Trump’s first term. “The number is going to be a little higher now because the President is here more than he was in his first term.”
“I know the President himself does support the funding. And it’s a bi-partisan effort,” said Palm Beach County Congresswoman Lois Frankel,.
Frankel is a Democrat.
She and Republican Congressman Thomas Kean, Jr of New Jersey, where President Trump spends several summer weekends are co-sponsoring of the Presidential Security Resources Reimbursement Act.
That bill calls for paying back local first responding agencies for the cost of protecting the President.
Protecting the President on the ground takes a lot of resources. And the President also needs to be protected from potential threats in the sky.
Since taking office in January, the North American Aerospace Command or NORAD, reports 30 planes violated the 30 mile no-fly zone around Mar-a-Lago.
On nine occasions, NORAD had to send Air Force fighter jets to intercept private planes and escort them out of the restricted air space.
"When any aircraft goes into those air spaces, you do not know what their intent is," said Lt. Colonel Alex Papp, an Air Force pilot who has frequently been dispatched by NORAD to intercept wayward planes in restricted air space.
When an intercept is necessary, NORAD sends two fighter jets, at a cost of $50-thousand an hour.
That comes out of the US military budget.
Last summer's assassination attempt on President Trump in Pennsylvania - and the alleged attempt to kill the President in September at his West Palm Beach golf course added a sense of urgency to pay local governments to step up.
But will local governments get reimbursed for their efforts.
“Let’s say I’m fairly optimistic,” said Congresswoman Frankel. “If we can actually get a spending bill passed. We had a little difficulty as we couldn’t get one passed for 2025.”
But if Congress fails to pass a budget, Frankel says it could be a long time before Palm Beach County gets reimbursed.
“We’re in a pretty chaotic environment,” said the Congresswoman.
“You have to have a Plan B,” added County Mayor Marino, who says Palm Beach County is in good enough financial shape that it doesn’t need to be re-imbursed immediately.
And those costs could taper off as summer approaches and President Trump is expected to spend more weekends at his resort in New Jersey, and less time at Mar-a-Lago.
