President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago trips have been repeatedly described as costing taxpayers millions per visit,
Executive summary
Direct federal estimates show that Mar‑a‑Lago trips have indeed cost taxpayers millions—GAO found four early 2017 trips amounted to about $13.6 million, or roughly $1 million per day of those trips [1] — but claimed “per‑trip” totals in media and advocacy reporting range widely from roughly $1 million to $3–4 million depending on methodology and which expenses are included [2] [3] [4].
1. What the hard audit says: GAO’s baseline
The Government Accountability Office, the federal watchdog, analyzed agency data and estimated that federal agencies incurred about $13.6 million supporting the President’s four trips to Mar‑a‑Lago from Feb. 3–Mar. 5, 2017, a figure the GAO itself presented as the most concrete audit‑style accounting available for that window [1] [3].
2. How “millions per trip” gets calculated and why it varies
Advocates, news outlets and watchdogs extrapolate different “per‑trip” figures by dividing GAO totals across days or visits, applying inflation adjustments, or by adding categories GAO excluded—like salary costs, certain classified expenses, or local law enforcement overtime—which produces estimates clustered from about $1 million to upward of $3–4 million per trip [5] [6] [4].
3. The $1 million figure: travel and daily operations
Some reporting emphasizes travel costs that are straightforward to tally—Air Force One flight hours, additional cargo flights for the motorcade, Marine One, and added Coast Guard or DOD posture—yielding roughly $1 million in travel and immediate protection costs for a roundtrip to Palm Beach once associated flights and escorts are added [6] [7].
4. The higher estimates: counting broader agency and local costs
Higher per‑trip figures near $3–4 million rely on including more extensive Secret Service, DOD, and local policing overtime, temporary duty travel, and other agency support that GAO either excluded from public reporting or counted across multiple days rather than per‑visit; watchdogs and congressional reports cite averages in that range by allocating multi‑day aggregated costs to single visits [8] [9] [4].
5. Local law enforcement and county budgets shift the tally
Palm Beach County and local sheriff’s offices have reported large local overtime and contingency draws—local media and county officials have said a single extended trip can cost county law enforcement “more than a million dollars” in overtime and operational strain, which is rarely included in federal tallies but directly affects municipal taxpayers [10] [11].
6. Payments to Mar‑a‑Lago and potential self‑dealing
GAO’s audit noted that some direct charges—about $60,000 in the 2017 GAO sample—were paid to Mar‑a‑Lago itself for lodging or services, and critics point to patterns of federal payments to properties the President owns as an additional fiscal and ethical concern; proponents argue that presidents historically use private facilities and that some costs are comparable across administrations, but watchdogs stress the conflict angle [1] [9] [12].
7. Bottom line, nuance and reporting limits
The accurate short answer is that Mar‑a‑Lago trips have cost taxpayers millions overall and can plausibly amount to roughly $1 million per day or between $1 million and $4 million per trip depending on which costs are included and how multi‑day expenses are allocated; the GAO provides the firmest audited baseline but leaves out classified and some personnel costs, and local expenditures are tracked unevenly, so any single “per‑trip” headline should be treated as a methodological claim rather than a settled single number [1] [3] [11].