Chelsea Clinton defends Donald Trump's children after calls to stop their Secret Service protection
'The President's family's protection should not be politicised,' says former first daughter
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Chelsea Clinton has defended Donald Trump’s children amid calls for the President’s offspring to stop receiving Secret Service protection.
President Trump has drawn mounting criticism in recent weeks for the combined cost of protecting himself and his immediate family. Critics have argued the taxpayer should not be bankrolling the cost of secret service protection.
The former first daughter, who is the only child of Hillary and Bill Clinton, weighed in on the furore and argued the President’s family’s security and safety should never be politicised.
Ms Clinton said: “It makes me very sad to read this and to know that anyone would ever say this. The President's family's protection should not be politicised.”
She was responding to a tweet by US journalist Yashar Ali which said: “Some say Trump kids shouldn’t have Secret Service. Do you not care about national security crisis that would arise if one of them was kidnapped or hurt?”
Ms Clinton also defended the youngest of the Trump Children, Barron who is just 11 years old, after he was subject to a torrent of memes mocking his facial expressions and accusing him of looking bored on inauguration day.
Mr Trump has come under fire for the exorbitant cost of protecting members of his close family – including his adult children, Donald Jr, Eric, Ivanka and Tiffany, and Barron, who lives in a three-floor penthouse in Trump Tower in New York with his mother and First Lady Melania Trump.
It costs between $127,000 and $146,000 a day of taxpayers’ money “to protect the First Lady and her son while they reside in Trump Tower,” according to an NYPD letter sent to members of the New York delegation to Congress.
Mr Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, has also sparked outrage for the cost of her secret service costs. Ivanka, her husband Jared Kushner, their children and the President’s other son Eric reportedly required 100 Secret Service agents to travel with the group for their recent spring break skiing holiday in Colorado. The US Secret Service is reported to have spent $12,208 on rental ski equipment and clothing at the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club.
Critics have frequently raised alarm bells about why the taxpayer is picking up the bill for the complicated lifestyle of the Trump family. “Why are Trump's grown children getting taxpayer-funded limousines while doing business overseas? Why do they get Secret Service protection?” asked one person on Twitter.
On top of this, the US Secret Service are reported to have requested $60 million in additional funding for next year.
Nearly half of the additional money, $26.8 million, would pay to protect Mr Trump’s family and private home in New York’s Trump Tower, documents seen by Washington Post show, while $33 million would be spent on travel costs incurred by “the president, vice president and other visiting heads of state.”
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