Trump has spent 28 percent of his presidency at Mar-a-Lago. Here’s why the Florida mansion poses a serious problem

Not only are Trump’s frequent trips to Mar-a-Lago unnecessarily threatening to U.S. interests and national security – they’re expensive. Almost comically expensive.

Mar-a-Lago. Known for its Rumpelstiltskin-like obsession to dip everything in gold, and of course, being the president’s favorite hiding place from the reality of the world.

Trump has spent seven of 13 weekends at Mar-a-Lago. That amounts to more than a quarter of his time as president spent so far in his Florida mansion. Think about it. That’s an astonishing amount of time being spent away from Washington, D.C. Imagine if 28 percent of the plots of The West Wing or Veep flew their characters to Florida with a golf club in one hand and the middle finger to the American people on the other.

On second thought, that’d make for great television. But terrible judgement on the part of the Trump administration.

RELATED: President Donald Trump has lost all credibility

Just this weekend, Trump is back in Palm Beach. Unfortunately for the rest of the country, this is terrible timing. Tensions around the world are rising to levels we haven’t seen in years, with North Korea just launching a missile yesterday, which thankfully failed within 5 seconds.

However, Kim Jung Un is looking to perform a sixth nuclear test, which doesn’t bode well for the region, including South Korea, home to 50 million citizens and about 28,000 U.S. troops. Oh and Vice President Mike Pence, whose policies sound more like they’re from a Puritan pilgrim kidnapped from his home in the 1600s, is there for the weekend, too.

Mar-a-Lago security is a joke

Since Trump calls Mar-a-Lago the new “Winter White House,” it begs the question: Does the security level at Mar-a-Lago even match that of the White House?

Not even close.

Politico reports that despite some metal-detection checkpoints, armed guards and bomb-sniffing dogs, there’s major security vulnerabilities, including the provision that allows guests to enter Mar-a-Lago without a background check.

Secret Service agents say they’re unable to account for some espionage threats, like checking for wiretap devices hidden at the property. That means there’s legitimate security failings at a high-end club where the president conducts official business and meetings with world leaders.

When security can’t meet the level necessary to protect the president and White House resources, this is what happens:

Remember that open-air strategy session that took place after North Korea performed a nuclear test? Dinner guests were potentially privy to national security information involving a volatile foreign government.

Come on, this is America, not a ragtag bunch of geeks in a garage in Cupertino. We have the means to avoid such obvious breaches of privacy, like working within the walls of the White House, and not on a billionaire’s back patio.

How much are Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips costing us?

So how much money exactly do the taxpayers shell out every time the commander in chief wants to practice his golf swing? It’s so expensive that even conservative groups can’t ignore it any longer.

Judicial Watch is a conservative organization that in the past has championed such award-winning articles such as “proof” of Obama’s czars, which Politifact called BS on in 2011, and a totally real ISIS camp in Mexico they swear is 100% legit.

This same group is railing against Trump for spending too much money on weekend trips to Mar-a-Lago. And you know Trump has reached a new low when basically the id of the alt-right conspiracy wing now feels compelled to fact-check the president.

Judicial Watch estimates that a roundtrip from Washington to Palm Beach costs $1 million. Analyses from other groups put the total around $3 million per trip.

But not to worry, White House press secretary Sean “the Spicey” Spicer is on the case.

Spicey defended the constant trips by saying Trump’s habit of leaving the White House for his vacation mansion on the weekends “is part of being president.”

Which is sort of like the king’s royal spokesman saying prima nocta is totally cool because it’s just part of the perks of being king.

Just because a leader makes something part of his job doesn’t mean the rest of us have to accept it.

How congressional Democrats are responding to Trump’s weekend getaway

Democrats in Congress have come up with a pushback to Trump’s actions, and it’s got a pretty incredible name: “Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act.”

Otherwise known as the MAR-A-LAGO Act.

Serious props to whichever congressional staffer came up with that name.

The bill would require a visitor log of the White House and “any other location at which the President or the Vice President regularly conducts official business,” i.e. Mar-a-Lago.

It’s far from a perfect solution, but it’s something. The bill would require the log to be updated every 90 days and remain available to the public at all times. Much more needs to be done legislatively to rein in Trump’s frequent flaunting of transparency laws and norms. But for now, it’s a start.

With this president, it’s going to be a long battle to get the Trump administration to give an inch on transparency. But the fight is worth it.

Follow Shari Rose on Twitter.