‘Virtually unheard of’: Why Jared Kushner’s recent Abu Dhabi visit cost American taxpayers almost $13,000

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Although members of former President Donald Trump’s family have been gone from the White House for almost four months, they continue to enjoy the taxpayer-funded protection of the U.S. Secret Service — including Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a former White House senior adviser for the Trump Administration. Kushner recently visited Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and the Daily Beastreported that according to U.S. State Department documents, the Secret Service protection he enjoyed during that trip cost American taxpayers $12,950.

Vanity Fair’s Bess Levin, in a column published on May 17, explains, “If you only got your news from Donald Trump’s new social media website, a.k.a. blog, or by watching the speeches he gives to wedding guests and random passersby at Mar-a-Lago like an old man shouting at an empty blender, you might think he was still president. In fact, he is not, but the U.S. is still paying for Secret Service protection for all of his adult children and their families — which is why, when former first son-in-law Jared Kushner took a little trip to the Middle East last month, it cost taxpayers nearly $13,000.”

Kushner, Levin notes, stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Abu Dhabi from May 5-14 and enjoyed Secret Service protection the whole time. Continue reading.