US Politics
Secret Service spending thousands on Eric Trump jaunt to Ireland as he plans ‘spectacular’ new ballroom at family’s Doonbeg golf resort
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As the Trump administration slashes budgets for scientific research, guts public health spending and threatens to starve “woke” states of crucial federal funds, the Secret Service will lay out thousands of taxpayer dollars on an upcoming jaunt to Ireland with the president’s adult son, who is seeking local approval to build a “spectacular” new ballroom at the family’s golf resort in County Clare.
Federal procurement records reviewed by The Independent show the agency has set aside $21,449.01 for “USSS Hotel Lodging – Eric Trump Visit – Doonbeg 20th/21st January 2026.”
The contract was awarded by the U.S. Embassy in Dublin, and the funds are coming from the Department of State’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, the documents show.
The documentation does not specify which hotel the agency has booked, but taxpayers laid out nearly $28,000 for Eric’s Secret Service detail to stay at the Trump-owned property while accompanying him to Doonbeg on a 2017 business trip. When President Trump visited Doonbeg in 2019, his hotel billed the Secret Service more than $10,000 for agents’ lodging during the two-day trip, and that same year charged taxpayers over $15,000 to house then-VP Mike Pence’s Secret Service detail for two nights.
Eric once claimed that the family business let the Secret Service stay at their hotels for free or at cost. However, an investigation by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a D.C. watchdog nonprofit, found Trump properties usually charged the Secret Service “above typical rates, including for Eric Trump’s own travel.”
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The lodging bill for the Secret Service to accompany Eric to Ireland will be just a small portion of the overall cost, such as salaries, air travel, meals and local transportation.
In an email on Thursday, Secret Service spokeswoman Alexandra Worley told The Independent, “Per federal law, the immediate families of current U.S. Presidents are entitled to receive U.S. Secret Service protection. This is outlined in 18 U.S. Code 3056. All expenditures associated with our protective operations are made in accordance with federal spending and procurement regulations. For operational security reasons, we are not able to discuss the specific resources or costs used to conduct our protective operations.”
After their father regained the White House in 2024, Eric and older brother Don Jr., took control of the Trump Organization and holds no official roles in the administration; the purpose of Eric’s trip to Ireland next week is unclear from the procurement documents.
But, as has been reported recently by the Irish media, Eric is playing a “pivotal role” in erecting a 13,000-square-foot ballroom at Doonbeg, somewhat mirroring his father’s controversial construction of an “exquisite” 90,000-square-foot ballroom at the White House.
“It is spectacular,” Eric said in September, claiming the planned structure will be “the nicest ballroom in the country.”
“The design is the best you’ve ever seen,” Eric gushed to the Sunday Independent. “It’s really incredible, and I’m working on that very, very closely.”
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In addition to a main function room, a reception space, and bar and lounge areas, Doonbeg’s new ballroom will feature staff facilities, kitchen and catering areas, a bridal suite and “champagne and tea stations,” according to plans submitted to the Clare County Council in late December. It will accommodate up to 320 guests, and require the existing ballroom, which holds 260, to be demolished. (President Trump tore down the East Wing of the White House, after promising not to touch any of it, to make way for his $400 million ballroom.)
Although Eric and the Trump Organization want permission for the “reconfiguration, upgrading and extension of existing car parking” areas to accommodate the new ballroom at Doonbeg, the building itself “is contemporary yet sympathetic to the architectural character of the existing hotel campus,” the planning application contends. It goes on to say that the ballroom will further “reinforc[e] the legibility and cohesiveness of the resort core,” and claims the ballroom stands to strengthen the resort’s role as “a key economic driver for Doonbeg and West Clare.”
The ballroom’s presence will also not negatively impact the population of protected Vertigo Angustior snails living on and around the resort, according to the Trump Organization’s submitted environmental statement. While the snails are in “terminal decline” at Doonbeg, they are disappearing there due to marine erosion and habitat succession, according to the study.
On a previous trip to Doonbeg, Eric Trump described his father as “a guy who loves this property, he loves Ireland, he loves everything about it and he is stuck with the most difficult job in the world.”
Operating profits at Doonbeg doubled in 2023, to about $2.3 million on revenues of $18.5 million.
The Clare County Council will accept public comments on the Doonbeg ballroom proposal through February 2, with a decision due three weeks after that.
