Protecting the President of the United States has never come cheap in the modern era.

But Secret Service protection of Donald Trump and his family is not only costly — a lot of those tax dollars go right into his own corporate pocket.

In just the first five months after Trump’s inauguration in 2017, the presidential guardians paid more than a quarter-million dollars to Trump properties, according to records obtained by the watchdog group Property of the People.

“These new records, detailing spending on Secret Service credit cards, show … $254,000 by the Secret Service alone,” reports the Washington Post.

“The president has set up an extraordinary arrangement: He kept ownership of his businesses — and then visited them repeatedly, bringing along aides and security officials and charging the government for what they bought,” the Post says.

Some examples:

“On April 2, 2017 … Trump played golf at his club in suburban Virginia — a short drive from the White House. That day, the records show, the Secret Service made five separate payments to ‘Trump National Golf Club’ totaling $26,802….”

“On May 7, Trump was staying at his golf club in Bedminster, NJ. The Secret Service records show $16,000 in spending at ‘Trump National Golf Club’ that day.”

The Post quotes Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People, as saying these figures show that “Donald Trump views the American public as a bunch of marks waiting to be fleeced.”

There’s been no comment so far from the White House, the Trump Organization or the Secret Service.