Over four weeks in March as well as Feb. 2017, Donald Trump’s four trips to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, as well as his summit with the Japanese prime minister, cost the government $14 million.
According to results of a nonpartisan government watchdog’s investigation obtained by ABC News, the accounting reveals that the government paid around $60,000 to Trump’s Palm Beach property.
The Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog that operates as an investigative arm of Congress, additionally found in a report that the U.S. Secret Service spent $369,000 protecting the president’s sons — Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump on three international trips back in 2017.
Eric Trump traveled to Uruguay as well as the Dominican Republic on Trump Organization business, while both brothers as well as their spouses traveled to the United Arab Emirates.
And according to the report, both the Trumps as well as their Secret Service details flew commercial on all three trips.
According to an ABC News analysis of the president’s schedule, Trump spent at least part of 14 days and six full days in Palm Beach across the four weeks, with surveillance by the Government Accountability Office.
And of the $13.6 million spent by the government on Trump’s four trips to Florida — $10.6 million was spent on both government aircraft and boats.
An additional $3 million was spent on transporting, lodging and feeding government personnel associated with the trip.
According to the GAO, the Defense Department as well as the Department of Homeland Security incurred a majority of the costs — which were $8.5 million and $5.1 million.
The State and Justice Departments spent $29,000 on the four trips to Florida — which included Cabinet member and agency staff travel.
The Justice Department spent $18,000 to transport then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his detail and support staff to Mar-a-Lago for one trip.
One of those trips included Trump’s summit Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Democrats have flagged concerns about the president’s club, saying it raises ethical and security concerns.
“This alarming report captures a snapshot of the tens of millions of dollars President Trump spends to travel to his Palm Beach resort — all at taxpayer expense — including government funds that are paid directly to a business in which the president himself has a financial interest,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wrote in a statement on Tuesday.
“This is part of a troubling pattern of wasteful spending and serious abuse of tax dollars by the administration. We will keep investigating this issue to ensure taxpayer dollars are being used effectively and appropriately.”
The GAO found that close to $60,000 of the expenses were paid to Mar-a-Lago over the four trips — including $36,000 spent by the Secret Service for operational purposes and $24,414.70 on lodging by the Defense Department.
The GAO also discovered that the Secret Service and Defense Department did not submit reports to Congress on the costs incurred protecting the president — something that is required under the President Protection Assistant Act of 1976.
The White House has defended the cost of Trump’s travel in the past as, arguing that he works on his weekend trips at his properties in Florida and New Jersey.
“The bottom line is the president is the president no matter where he goes, and he doesn’t get to control the level of costs and security that may come along with that,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders shared with reporters in May 2017, when asked about Trump’s weekend travel.
Both the cost as well as the frequency of Trump’s weekend travel has far exceeding his predecessors — but the costs of those trips have been difficult to assess.
NOW WATCH: Sweden Actually Turns It’s Garbage Into Energy | Save The World