In the six months since Donald Trump packed up his bronzer and Brioni suits and moved into the White House, rare has been the weekend that he’s actually stayed in D.C. Throughout the winter, he took most Fridays to fly down to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, where he famously hosted foreign leaders, ate “beautiful” chocolate cake, and held strategy sessions about North Korea in view of delighted paying members. For the last couple months, as the temperatures have risen and the days have gotten longer, the president has shifted his weekend getaways to his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he recently praised the ratio of Trump supporters to Trump protesters. Altogether, Trump has spent 54 of his 180 days in office at Trump-branded properties, including 40 days at his own golf courses. The one place the president hasn’t gone to escape the White House is his famed residence at Trump Tower in his hometown of Manhattan, where residents have planned mass protests should he return. Which makes the rent the government is reportedly paying on a space there seem pretty steep. Per The Wall Street Journal:

View more

The U.S. government is paying more than $130,000 a month to lease space in Trump Tower for the military office that supports the White House, even though Donald Trump hasn’t spent a night at the New York skyscraper since becoming president. The government signed a $2.39 million lease to rent a 3,475 sq. ft. space in the building for the military from Apr. 11, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018, nearly 18 months in total, according to lease documents that The Wall Street Journal obtained through a freedom of information request. The government agreed to pay $180,000 for the last 20 days of April 2017 and $130,000 a month thereafter, according to the contract released by the General Services Administration, the agency that negotiates office space agreements for the government.

All of that is on top of the costs the Secret Service has incurred to protect the president in N.Y.C., including an additional request of $25.7 million in the 2018 budget for expenses “associated with securing Trump Tower and the president’s protective footprint” in the city. According to the Journal, the most expensive listing in Trump Tower in the last year has been a 3,725-square-foot, three-bedroom apartment on the 62nd floor, asking $50,000 a month, or $60,000 a month furnished. The $130,000 a month makes the military’s lease one of the most expensive in Manhattan.

The General Services Administration, which negotiates office space arrangements for the government, says that the president himself is not benefiting financially from this situation. In a letter to Rep. Jackie Speier, acting Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics James A. MacStravic wrote, “Please know that this residential space is privately owned and that lease negotiations have been with the owner’s representatives only . . . We are not aware of any means through which the president would personally benefit from a government lease of this space.” According to the Journal, the owner is businessman Joel R. Anderson, chairman of Anderson Media Corp. and a member of Trump Tower’s board of directors.