Recently released records from the U.S. Coast Guard show how much money the military service has spent protecting Mar-a-Lago in the face of being threatened by budget cuts from the Trump Administration. The records were released last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Washington Post.
The cost of protecting the 'Winter White House'
According to the records, the U.S. Coast Guard spent over $6.6 million to protect the waterfront property at Mar-a-Lago. This covered the seven different weekend trips that President Donald Trump took to the so-called "Winter White House" this spring.
To protect the coastline and airspace of the waterfront estate in Palm Beach, the Coast Guard deployed anti-terror specialists, cutters, helicopters, and patrol boats from across America.
From October 2016 to this March the Coast Guard spent over $17.8 million on presidential security costs for the Obama and Trump Administrations. This amount is up from $15.1 million and $10.7 million over the same time periods ending in March 2016 and 2015, respectively. The Secret Service requested Coast Guard protection for Trump when he is at Mar-a-Lago, which is classified as “national special security events.”
How that $6.6 million was spent
Documents showed that the crew of the RB-S response boat was the most expensive, spending 1,866 hours on the water to protect the president, at a cost of $2.8 million dollars.
After this, patrol boats cost $1.35 million (414 hours), helicopters $1.1 million (136 hours) and fast response-cutters $0.95 million (96 hours). The remaining $400,000 came from support staff and other labor costs.
The Coast Guard is facing budget constraints
While the U.S. Coast Guard has spent money, time, and resources to protect Mar-a-Lago, their leaders are bracing for possible budget cuts by the Trump Administration.
In the face of a tightening budget, they have already had to make other difficult cuts, including postponing certain repairs to ships and not pursuing some illegal drug shipments since they lacked the resources to pursue them.
Two of the Coast Guard's top priorities -- port patrol and intercepting drugs -- intertwine, with Trump's biggest promises involving immigration and national security.
Besides their budget issues, they have been managing an aging fleet that they cannot replace. This is not being helped by President Trump's most recent budget proposal. In it, he suggests cutting their budget by 2.4% ($267 million).
