President Trump’s 4th of July extravaganza has “bankrupted” Washington DC’s security fund — which is intended to protect the capital from terrorists and guard rallies and other events, reports the Washington Post.
The celebration, including a Trump speech at the Lincoln Memorial, military flyovers and armored vehicles on the Mall, as well as large crowds of regular holiday visitors and protesters, cost the DC government $1.7 million. One official says that’s six times as much as past Independence Days.
Mayor Muriel Bowser wrote the president, warning “that the fund has now been depleted and is estimated to be running a $6 million deficit by Sept. 30. The mayor also noted that the account was never reimbursed for $7.3 million in expenses from Trump’s 2017 inauguration,” says the Post.
The fund once carried substantial balances from year to year, but that has changed in the Trump era.
“Congress and the White House have been placing less money in the account each year than the city is spending — in fiscal 2017, for example, $14.9 million was added to the fund while $24.4 million was spent,” says the Post.