Here's How Trump's Company Made Millions From Secret Service Flights During His Campaigns

Forbes Breaking News

The Secret Service has paid about $13 million for air travel since 2016 to Donald Trump’s political campaigns and fundraising committees—which then paid his private aviation company, Tag Air, $18 million, underscoring how Trump’s political operation can generate revenue, including from the taxpayers, for his business empire. Forbes staff writer Zach Everson joined "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss.   Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2025/05/23/trump-campaign-secret-service-airfare-payments/

Transcript

00:00Hi everybody I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now is my

00:07Forbes colleague, staff writer Zach Everson. Zach, thanks so much for joining me. Thanks for

00:13having me back. Lots to talk about. There is a lot to talk about and you found this sort of

00:18roundabout way that flights the Secret Service was taking is somehow financially benefiting

00:24President Trump himself. So if you could, could you break down that flow chart a little bit for us?

00:30Of course. So like all presidential candidates, the Secret Service pays, reimburses the campaign

00:39for the airfare when it accompanies a candidate who gets Secret Service coverage. So we've seen

00:46this happen, you know, George W. Bush, McCain, Obama, Clinton, all of that. What's different here

00:52is that Trump's campaign is renting the airplane from Trump's personal business. So what you have

01:00is you have the Secret Service paying, it's been about $13 million so far that they have paid the

01:06campaign. The campaign in turn has paid Trump's business $18 million. So, you know, in this case,

01:14you're not just having the money go to a third party vendor, you're having the money from the

01:18Secret Service from the taxpayers going to the president's business.

01:23And $13 million, I mean, that is just a lot over the course of, I'm assuming nine years,

01:29right, since 2016, since President Trump was. Okay. So, but talk to us.

01:33So there is a gap in there. There is a multi-year gap in there because when he was president,

01:38they weren't paying to cover him because he was getting flown around on Air Force One.

01:41So, you know, while it is going back to 2016, there are several years in there that they did

01:46not make any payments to the campaign at all. So it's probably for about under seven to eight

01:51years right there is what the payments cover. So, I mean, even so, even more so, I think this

01:57proves the point that that seems like a lot of money for even a shorter amount of time, as you're

02:03saying, because the years that he was flying Air Force One, Secret Service wasn't charging then. I mean,

02:08how does this stack up to, because you said other presidential candidates like George W. Bush,

02:13like President Biden, like Senator John McCain, how does this stack up to what they were paying

02:18the Secret Service? No, no. Trump was by and far the highest. Now, of course, we do have to adjust

02:23for inflation, but second place went to Hillary Clinton, who was at $8.8 million. And that was also

02:29a clear bump up from third place, which would have been 4.1 to Barack Obama. So Donald Trump there is

02:36far and away the one who has received the most in payments from the from the Secret Service for his

02:40campaign. And like I said, unlike any of those other people, that money then, you know, he's renting,

02:46his campaign is renting the airplane from his company. None of those other candidates have their

02:51own airplanes. So no other candidate was financially benefiting from the Secret Service. But is there

02:57any indication of why there was this disparity in the millions?

03:00No, no. I mean, obviously, inflation would cover part of that. But beyond that, I really didn't

03:08dive into that to figure it out.

03:10And so can you remind us again of exactly how the president is benefiting from this? Because you

03:16break down the flowchart again, you and I have talked about this a lot. It goes to that revocable

03:20trust. So talk to us about that revocable trust a little bit.

03:23So Donald Trump put his businesses in a revocable trust. They did this when he was elected first time

03:30and they said, Oh, you know, it's okay. He's not has nothing to do with business. They're on a

03:34revocable trust. Well, Donald Trump is the sole beneficiary of that trust. And he's also the sole

03:39donor of that trust. Donald Trump Jr. is the trustee. And it's revocable. So Trump can withdraw

03:47at any time. I mean, it's really just just kind of a little bit of a shell. It doesn't really mean he

03:51can't take any money out of there. Tag Air is his airplane company. And it is 100% contained

03:59within that trust. So that is exclusively Donald Trump's business from which he can profit from.

04:05Are there any ethics laws then barring President Trump from touching that revocable trust now?

04:09Because you said he can touch it at any time. But has he done it? And can he do it because he's

04:14president? You know, we haven't seen anything. He hasn't released any financial disclosures

04:20since he has been reelected. But yeah, I mean, there's nothing stopping him. He could just use

04:25that money for spending money or from whatever he needs at this point. So yeah, it's whether it's

04:31ethical or not, that's a judgment call. It does not appear to be illegal by any stretch. Part of the

04:36issue we're dealing with here is that he has been a groundbreaking president in terms of holding on

04:42to his business empire and even having a business empire while coming into the White House. So there's

04:47not much of a precedent to go on for somebody who has this many different business ventures

04:53and this much money tied up into all those different business ventures. So, you know,

04:58there's really not much of a precedent there. The courts didn't rule one way or another on,

05:03you know, whether he's having these businesses and accepting money from foreign governments

05:07volume violated the emoluments clause barring, you know, the president from receiving foreign gifts.

05:12So really, it's just he can do whatever he wants, by and large.

05:18And you and I talk at length over President Trump profiting from his perch in the White House.

05:24Is this a surprise then? I'm assuming, no, that he was profiting this way from his campaign?

05:29No, we've looked at this in the past. We looked at this last year. The figure was closer to about

05:33$10 million then. Figured it was time to take another look now that that last campaign cycle

05:39is finished up. So, yeah, not not a surprise. I mean, this is a guy who sells bars and sold bars

05:44of soap that have the White House wrapper on them. He currently sells the presidential gold note on

05:50his website. This weekend, he was his trumpstore.com was putting a blast of its Memorial Day sale.

05:58He was on the tarmac being interviewed in New Jersey, being asked about Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.

06:04And you noticed he was wearing a hat, a white Trump hat, Make America Great Again hat.

06:10That hat is for sale on his website. You know, he's modeling off the merch. So the fact that

06:14the president is, you know, charging the Secret Service and then reimbursing his himself from the

06:21from the from the Secret Service payments to the campaign is not surprising whatsoever.

06:25And you've reported that this isn't the only way that President Trump has benefited

06:30financially from the Secret Service over the past nine years. Dive a little deeper into how

06:35else he's benefited from them. So Democrats on the House Oversight Committee put out a report,

06:41I believe it was earlier this year, that showed $1.4 million in payments from the Secret Service

06:47to Donald Trump's properties while he was president. So essentially, they were paying

06:53Trump's businesses while they were there to protect him. Eric Trump had famously said that they, you know,

07:01yeah, they charge, but it's just it's just their costs. And that is that is not true. You can go

07:08back and we've obtained some records from FOIA showing that the per diem is is well above what the

07:15per cost rate is for a hotel room. So, you know, the report mentioned that this is just a small little

07:20drop that they've been able to find. They think the actual payments are much, much higher than this.

07:25But this is just what they were able to get from the Secret Service.

07:28For a lot of different businesses, when you're traveling for work, you have to adhere to certain

07:32guidelines depending on what level you're at. Does the Secret Service have any travel guidelines

07:37themselves? Yeah, you know, they're supposed to keep it somewhat reasonable. But unlike other

07:42government agencies, they don't have to follow just the GSA guidelines there. They need to pay what they

07:48need to pay to protect the president. So, you know, they do have a little bit more leeway there than

07:53other government agencies. And I know you looked at for reference what the Secret Service paid

07:58former President Biden. What was that number looking like? So, yeah, this was really interesting.

08:04This came out years ago that Joe Biden was actually charging the Secret Service to rent a cottage on his

08:11property in Wilmington, Delaware. So that had been known. But what hadn't been known is that actually

08:17they stopped in 2017. We submitted a FOIA request. We got the data through October 2023.

08:23And those payments did stop in 2017. So the total that he charged them was $172,000. And that was

08:30largely rent payments, monthly rent payments for the cottage going back to 2011. So, yes, he was

08:36charging the Secret Service for property that he owned. But the amount was obviously much, much smaller

08:41than what Donald Trump has charged the Secret Service.

08:43And, Zach, this is a really big number, $13 million. Has the White House, has TAG air,

08:49has anyone in Trump's orbit responded to requests for comment when you asked about it?

08:56No. The White House spokesperson declined to comment on the record. The Secret Service did just confirm

09:02the figures. You know, I originally was able to piece together the figures by looking through filings

09:06with the Federal Election Commission. The Secret Service essentially confirmed some of those.

09:12Their data was more recent than what the FEC had. And the White House did not respond to comment at

09:18all there. Or excuse me, not. Yeah, the White House did not respond on the record and the Trump

09:21organization did not respond. Zach, per usual, I appreciate the reporting. Thanks for joining me.

09:28Look forward to joining you again.

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