Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle's trip to Paris cost taxpayers more than $64,000

Not first time Don Jr’s travel expenses have been questioned

US taxpayers spent more than $64,000 for President Donald Trump’s eldest son and his girlfriend to visit Paris for a two-day vacation in 2018.

Secret Service documents reveal that the trip by Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle included a stay at a $1,000-a-night hotel near the Champs-Elysees.

Mr Trump and Ms Guilfoyle had recently begun a relationship when they took the trip in which they visited the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, according to posts on Instagram. The couple then continued their travels by attending a friend’s 50th birthday party in Monaco.

The Huffington Post reports Secret Service records show a cost to taxpayers of $31,104 on air travel and $23,036 for accommodation.

Hotel rooms, booked for the nights of 11-12 July, 2018, were divided between the Hotel de Sers and the Prince de Galles, both five star luxury properties.

Accommodation costs were so high that the Secret Service applied for $8,575 to cover the “lodging variance”. The original estimate for lodging was $14,460.

State Department travel guidance for accommodation in Paris in 2018 was $425 per day, according to HuffPost.

A further $10,303 was spent renting three vehicles from an agency specialising in armoured cars.

It is unknown how many agents accompanied the couple on their trip, nor what costs were incurred in Monaco.

Neither Mr Trump nor Ms Guilfoyle are government employees, but it is standard for family members of the president to receive Secret Service protection.

A spokesperson told HuffPost that Mr Trump would prefer not to be under Secret Service protection, he has no choice given the “astonishingly high number of death threats” he receives.

In addition to being Mr Trump’s girlfriend, Ms Guilfoyle is the finance chair of Trump Victory, a fundraising committee for the campaign and the Republican National Committee. Her shouted speech at the this week's RNC was one of the wilder moments of the convention.

Mr Trump’s taxpayer-funded travel expenses have come under scrutiny before. In 2019 he took an eight day hunting trip to Mongolia to kill a rare breed of sheep. That trip cost in excess of $75,000 for Secret Service protection.