Sarcastically speaking, Trump is on course to make America great again. He launched a missile strike at Syria. A United States warship carrying bombers is heading to the Korean Peninsula to target North Korea and he’s poking Russia and China with a short stick.
By doing these things, America’s military hegemony is back on track. Although, it must be noted, when Trump ran his organization as a private citizen, he opposed the United States acting as the world’s policeman; now that he is in charge, he sees nothing wrong with it.
The Syrian strike cost taxpayers over $94 million. The impending attack on North Korea too is going to cost taxpayers money. From all indications, Trump has abandoned his campaign promise of solving domestic problems. He is pursuing the old track of wars at the White House, left behind by his predecessors.
As Trump neglects his core domestic duties, his appointees are also adding significantly to the money wasting spree he has embarked on. These appointees are spending huge amounts on their personal needs.
It has emerged that the Trump administration has been spending over a whopping $1 million per month on the security of Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. DeVos’ confirmation as Secretary of Education by the Senate didn’t come without controversy either. Vice President Mike Pence had to intervene to break a 50-50 deadlock over her confirmation, becoming the first vice president ever to cast a tie-breaking vote for a Cabinet nominee.
And now that she has taken the job, the controversy isn’t going away. The United States Marshals Service (USMS) has said it is providing an unusual security arrangement for DeVos, costing taxpayers more than $1 million every month.
According to the USMS, there is glaring evidence that a threat to the secretary’s safety exists, and that it would continue to offer DeVos the protection, despite the huge cost. Surprisingly, the USMS refused to disclose the nature of the threat that has warranted such an expensive security detail for the secretary.
But according to media reports, the USMS started protecting DeVos days after protesters blocked a doorway and prevented her from entering a middle school near her office in Washington. This is believed to have happened in early February.
On February 13, the USMS started protecting DeVos. According to the current agreement between the Education Department and the USMS over the provision of the security to DeVos, the Education Department would pay the USMS $7.78 million this fiscal year. This works out to nearly $34,000 per day for the security of DeVos. If you multiply this amount by 30 days, you get a little over $1 million. Yes, over $1 million for just the security of one person in the Trump administration.
It is said the contract between the Education Department and the USMS to provide the protection would run until September 30, the end of the government’s fiscal year. It is unclear whether the expensive protection would continue or not.
In the United States, security for the numerous federal judges, prosecutors and other court employees is one of the USMS’ key responsibilities. According to a USMS spokeswoman, Lynzey Donahue, the service operates an around-the-clock national threat management center that handled 2,357 threats last year.
Officers in the USMS are allowed to arrest fugitives, secure prisoners and run the federal government’s witness protection program. However, the service rarely handles protection for Cabinet officials.
Donahue told CNN in an interview that the size of the protection team for DeVos is commensurate with the existing threat, and is based on USMS protective service requirements, experience and methodology.
Apart from the USMS providing this expensive security for DeVos, the Secret Service is also providing full protection for President Trump and his family, who are scattered across the country.
Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly recently told reporters that the Secret Service needs “a lot more agents” to handle the demands of Trump and his family. In fact, the Secret Service is currently supplementing its regular presidential protection team with special agents who normally work criminal investigations in regional offices around the country. As for the cost on Trump, we are yet to find out.
On money wasting, so far so good for the Trump administration. America will be great again… probably after Trump finishes milking the country. Taxpayers are bearing the brunt for these costly expenditures by the administration, without explanation nor excuse.
This article (Trump Spends Over $1 Million Per Month on Security of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
Supporting Anonymous’ Independent & Investigative News is important to us. Please, follow us on Twitter: Follow @AnonymousNewsHQ
