Trump's Lifestyle Bleeding Secret Service Budget Dry

Donald Trump hates being president. He hates the work of being president; he hates the scrutiny and the criticism; he hates the White House, which he thinks is a dump; he hates the demands on his time, which he'd prefer to spend golfing.

And so he tries to do as little presidenting as possible, spending as much time away from the White House as he can. Which means a lot of travel. For him, and for his large family, who also spend as little time as possible in the White House, and as little time as possible with him.

All of this adds up to quickly draining the Secret Service's annual budget.

[Content Note: Video may autoplay at link] Kevin Johnson at USA Today: Secret Service Depletes Funds to Pay Agents Because of Trump's Frequent Travel, Large Family.

The Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of agents it needs to carry out an expanded protective mission — in large part due to the sheer size of [Donald] Trump's family and efforts necessary to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast.

Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex" Alles, in an interview with USA TODAY, said more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year.

...Alles said the service is grappling with an unprecedented number of White House protectees. Under Trump, 42 people have protection, a number that includes 18 members of his family. That's up from 31 during the Obama administration.

Overwork and constant travel have also been driving a recent exodus from the Secret Service ranks, yet without congressional intervention to provide additional funding, Alles will not even be able to pay agents for the work they have already done.

The compensation crunch is so serious that the director has begun discussions with key lawmakers to raise the combined salary and overtime cap for agents, from $160,000 per year to $187,000 for at least the duration of Trump's first term.

But even if such a proposal was approved, about 130 veteran agents would not be fully compensated for hundreds of hours already amassed, according to the agency.

Emphases mine. Not only has Trump's lavish travel depleted the budget, but depleted it so critically that agents may not be paid for work they've done.

Which, frankly, continues a longtime pattern in which people who do work for Trump don't get paid. He's infected the federal government with his own unethical business practices.

None of this should come as a surprise, of course. Trump told us, quite literally, from Day One that he wouldn't give up his lifestyle to run for — or be — president. In his presidential announcement speech, he said: "I said, you know what I'll do. I'll do it. Because a lot of people said, 'He'll never run. Number one, he won't want to give up his lifestyle.' They're right about that, but I'm doing it."

He warned us. And a lot of us didn't listen.