Donald Trump’s private club is set to receive nearly $2 million in taxpayer-funded upgrades as spending on education and public health is gutted and entire federal agencies are eliminated by DOGE.
The Secret Service has issued a purchase order to install new “security enhancements” at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s members-only Palm Beach, Florida, resort that doubles as his personal residence, according to a review of federal contracting records by The Independent.
The $1.82 million outlay, which was finalized on March 10, comes amid a period of massive upheaval during which DOGE — billionaire “First Buddy” Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency — has zeroed out budgets for, among other things, pediatric cancer research, emergency food assistance, and public libraries, while unilaterally firing tens of thousands of IRS employees, cybersecurity specialists protecting American infrastructure from foreign threats, and “disease detectives” at the CDC.
In an email on Tuesday, Secret Service spokesman Nate Herring told The Independent, “Over the years, the U.S. Secret Service has continuously invested in security enhancements at President Trump’s residences. For operational security reasons, the Secret Service does not discuss the specific means and methods used to conduct our protective responsibilities.”
Trump has spent nearly every weekend at Mar-a-Lago since retaking office on January 20, with each jaunt costing taxpayers a reported $3.4 million.
Prairie Grove, Arkansas-based CMN, LLC — which operates under the slogan, “Doing what the others will not” — will perform the new Mar-a-Lago security work, listed in a U.S. government database as “Mar-a-Lago Protective Residence Security Enhancements.”
CMN bills itself as a supplier of “Comprehensive turnkey Electronic Security System solutions, including Video Management, Intrusion Detection, Access Control, and Physical Security Information Systems,” and trumpets its “extensive experience serving both private and government clients, including SCIF-level installations.”
“[O]ur team delivers reliable, high-performance systems tailored to meet your unique security needs,” CMN’s website tells prospective customers.
The project is described in official procurement records as: “INSTALLATION OF EQUIPMENT – ALARM, SIGNAL, AND SECURITY DETECTION SYSTEMS.” They do not include details of what the “enhancements” will include, or exactly what areas of the club or private residence they will cover.
In July 2024, Trump’s right ear was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet at a Pennsylvania rally. That September, Secret Service agents arrested a man allegedly out to kill the then-candidate as he golfed at one of his Florida courses.
Last August, the Secret Service spent more than $250,000 in taxpayer funds on Mar-a-Lago “perimeter assets,” that is, protective fencing and the like, according to federal contracting data.
A month later, the Secret Service laid out more than $160,000 on a “dog pad” for the Mar-a-Lago K-9 team, the data shows.
In August 2021, some months following the end of Trump’s first term in office, the Secret Service spent nearly $600,000 “to provide Mar-a-Lago with a Physical Security Build-Out Upgrade.”
At the same time, Trump has been accused of massively overcharging the Secret Service to stay at his properties when traveling with him or members of his family.
Although Eric Trump insisted that agents stayed at Trump properties “for free,” the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found myriad evidence undercutting the first son’s claim — in one instance, billing taxpayers $1,185 for a room at Trump’s D.C. hotel that went to others for between $125 and $170.
This past weekend, after Trump imposed steep import tariffs on almost every country on earth, tanking global markets and wiping out nearly $5 trillion in value from the S&P 500, the president decamped to Mar-a-Lago, where he hosted a Saudi-backed golf tournament and threw a $1 million-a-head fundraising dinner.
