The non-partisan group found that about $60,000 of the tab from the trips went directly back to Trump’s resort

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Donald Trump’s four trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort in early 2017 cost taxpayers nearly $14m, a watchdog report said.

The Government Accountability Office said travel and accommodations, Secret Service expenses, deployment of bomb-sniffing dogs and other costs for the trips between 3 February and 5 March in 2017 tallied to $13.6m. About $60,000 of the tab went directly to Mar-a-Lago.

The GAO report provides one of the clearest pictures yet of the costs of the president’s travel, and how much of that money goes back to his own properties.

The non-partisan research group for Congress also found that Secret Service costs for three trips abroad by Trump’s two adult sons and their spouses in early 2017 ran to $396,000.

Noah Bookbinder, executive director of the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), said the trips to Mar-a-Lago themselves were the real problem, not just the direct spending there.

“President Trump’s failure to divest from his properties has created a situation in which he benefits from government spending whenever he makes a promotional appearance at one of those properties,” Bookbinder said in an emailed comment. “This is not a presidential vacation, but an official trip that provides invaluable free publicity to his business.”

The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

During one of Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago in early 2017, the president played host to the visiting Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Donald Trump hosted the visiting Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and his wife Akie Abe at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

The GAO report was requested by Democratic members of Congress, including the California senator Dianne Feinstein and the Maryland representative Elijah Cummings.

The tally does not include expenses that are classified or salaries and benefits of US government employees traveling with the president. The GAO said the latter would have been incurred if the president had not traveled.

The GAO also did not include costs incurred by officials of the Executive Office of the President because the White House did not respond to a request for the data.

Trump spent a total of 49 days at Mar-a-Lago in 2017 and 29 days in 2018, according to Crew.

In January 2017, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump and their wives traveled to the United Arab Emirates. Eric Trump separately went to Uruguay that same month, then to the Dominican Republic the next month.