Heidi M. Przybyla

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – "I alone can fix it," Donald Trump famously declared as he accepted the presidential nomination last summer. When it comes to the serious budget crisis now facing the president's Secret Service, that might actually be true.

As USA TODAY first reported Monday, the Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of agents, who are grappling with protecting a president who spends almost every weekend traveling to properties he owns on the East Coast and the 18-member first family's frequent business trips and vacations. Director Randolph “Tex” Alles said more than 1,000 agents have already hit federally mandated caps on annual salary and overtime allowances meant to last the whole year.

More:Exclusive: Secret Service depletes funds to pay agents because of Trump's frequent travel, large family

Congress would have to intervene to get these agents paid. But former Secret Service officials and ethics experts say there are some simple ways that Trump himself could ease the financial burden – and personal strain – he and his family are putting on the men and women who protect him. Trump could:

Spend more time at the White House

"That would help solve the problem," said John Magaw, a former Secret Service director who began his career nearly three decades earlier as an agent under Lyndon Johnson in 1967.

Since his inauguration, Trump has taken seven trips to his estate in Mar-a-Lago, Fla., traveled to his Bedminster, N.J., golf club five times, and returned to Trump Tower in Manhattan once. Since Trump has a semi-regular presence at each resort, it's more costly to keep up the security infrastructure than a quick pop-in.

What's more, Trump properties are expensive – and the agency is not allowed to accept any funding or resources that Congress hasn't appropriated. That would include hotel rooms at Trump-owned properties, said another former Secret Service director, W. Ralph Basham, who says these regulations would guard the agency from any possible compromise of its protective mission.

Since Trump is unable to toss the Secret Service any freebies, it would be up to him to decide to adjust his travel. "The president could prevent this problem by changing his behavior,” said Walter Shaub, who resigned last month from his position as director of the Office of Government Ethics. "He could stay in town and do some work – and not go off frolicking on golf boondoggles to his own properties."

Shaub, who joined the office during the George W. Bush administration and was appointed as its chief by Barack Obama in January 2013, resigned after clashes with Trump. Shaub criticized Trump for failing to relinquish ownership of his real estate and commercial enterprises.

Swap costly resorts for Camp David

Magaw recommends Trump limit his travel to the customary one or two vacations a year, the White House and Camp David, the rural Maryland retreat presidents have frequented since the early 1940’s – "and the absolute necessary foreign trips, while this is getting fixed." From Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama, that's what presidents have done to save federal dollars and minimize the personal stress on federal agents and their families who, even with normal presidential travel schedules, face long stretches away from spouses and children.

“That really saves money,” Magaw said. The president's jaunts to Mar-a-Lago are estimated to cost at least $3 million each, based on a General Accountability Office estimate for similar travel by former President Obama.

Let his children decline protection

The Secret Service's mandate requires it protect the president, the vice president, and their immediate families, and select others.

Trump can't pay for his own Secret Service protection, said Scott Amey, chief counsel at the nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight, since it could raise legal issues under the Anti-Deficiency Act. Yet Trump's immediate family is allowed, under the law, to decline Secret Service protection or find other options.

"I don't see any way for the government to avoid these security expenditures, unless the family declines the protection services," said Amey. "The Secret Service, like all federal agencies, has a budget and it must operate within the limitations of that budget."

In particular, Trump's children – Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric Trump – take frequent trips to promote Trump-branded properties across the globe, from their home base in New York to places as far-flung as the United Kingdom and Dubai. Eric's business trip to Uruguay earlier this year cost the Secret Service nearly $100,000 just for hotel rooms, as one example. If the Trump sons swapped federal protection for private security, that would be a huge cost savings for taxpayers.

Other Trump children, such as Ivanka Trump – whose family vacation to Whistler, British Columbia, in April cost the agency some $53,000 for hotel rooms alone – could also decline protection if they so desired.

There is precedent for families declining protection, said former agency director Basham, who oversaw operations from 2003 to 2006. Former First Lady Barbara Bush, who was eligible for lifetime coverage, declined protection shortly after leaving the White House.

Even so, former Secret Service executive Arnette Heintze notes, the global security threats facing all Americans right now – including the first family – are unprecedented.

But Trump doesn't have to change anything

Heintze disputes the premise that Trump should consider the costs. "At the end of the day, that’s not an issue anybody should be telling a president or his family how to live their lives. That’s the dilemma we have as a nation," said Heintze, who now has his own global security risk management firm.

It's also unclear whether Trump would want to spend more weekends at Camp David. According to its website, there are tennis courts, nearby fishing and horseback riding, bowling, a fitness center and "meandering hilly trails." Trump didn't make his first visit to Camp David until five months into his presidency. When asked about the presidential retreat in an interview in January, Trump said it was “very rustic." He continued: “You know how long you’d like it? For about 30 minutes.”

Furthermore, there is no golf course.

Secret Service can also reform, some say

The Secret Service has faced major staffing shortages before Trump’s presidency – further aggravated by congressional spending battles.

Jason Chaffetz, former House Oversight Committee Chairman, disputed that Trump’s behavior is the main problem. “The bigger story is that they are one of the most poorly managed agencies in all of federal government,” said the Utah Republican, who estimated the agency is roughly 1,000 agents shy of appropriate staffing and bleeding unnecessary funding on overtime pay. "They already have the authorization and the funding,” said Chaffetz, who believes federal money is being squandered, including on training for people who ultimately fail background checks.

In the end, the Secret Service “is going to have to find money internally, receive a budget increase from Congress, or significantly scale back President Trump's and his family's travels until money is found,” said Amey, the Project on Government Oversight lawyer. “Taxpayers are going to have to open their wallets for years to come."

Those taxpayers have a right to insist Trump change his lifestyle habits, said Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush. “Absent an emergency, the president doesn’t just have a right to say 'we’re going to spend more on the Secret Service than we need,'” he said.

As Shaub, the former government ethics director, put it, "You’ve got this mentality that they’re somehow nobility and entitled to have the American people pay for their vacations and their boondoggles and fun, when in reality it’s their responsibility to serve us. Welcome to government service."

Contributing: Kevin Johnson, Jessica Estepa