Donald Trump Jr's wild sheep hunting trip to Mongolia cost taxpayers $75,000, reveal documents
Donald Trump Jr's trip to Mongolia last August was evidently an expensive one. In Mongolia, Trump Jr hunted a rare breed of giant sheep which reportedly cost US taxpayers around $75,000 in Secret Service protection, court documents have revealed. The documents were obtained by a nonprofit organization called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics.
The documents showed how Trump Jr's trip which had lasted eight days, cost a whopping $76,859.36, according to a CNN report. According to an official who is employed by Trump Jr, the trip had been personally paid for barring the Secret Service costs. The son of President Donald Trump had gone to Mongolia where he had hunted Argali sheep which are the largest species of sheep. The Red List of Threatened Species says that the Argali is a near-threatened species due to trophy hunting.
On his trip, he also visited Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga, the Washington Post reported. Trump Jr is very open about his hunting trips and often takes to social media to share images from his hunting and fishing trips. In the past, he has been slammed by animal rights groups and conservationists for "big game" hunting. The 42-year-old is currently under scrutiny by groups like CREW over the number of personal trips he has taken during his father's presidency over the last three-and-a-half years. This also puts a cost to taxpayers for Secret Service Protection which he can use but is not obligated to on personal trips.
As reported by The Week, CREW said that Treasury Department budget documents show that "The Trump family is taking 12 times as many protected trips than the Obama family did, which translates to roughly one thousand more trips per year."
"While we know that many of those trips have been to promote or support the Trump Organization business, there are thousands of trips that remain a mystery. With tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money spent protecting the Trump family, the Secret Service has run out of money and Congress has had to dramatically increase the agency's budget."
As the news spread on social media, many users commented on the same, slamming Trump Jr. One user shared, "Think of all the tiny houses for the homeless this money could have built. All the people this money could have fed. Spoiled rich people make me sick." Another commented, "There should be a budget for SS protection, and anything that exceeds it should be on their own dime." Another wrote, "Let me get this straight... He went to another country to hunt an essentially DOMESTICATED animal and charged it to US taxpayers? Until this moment I didn't think I could possibly have less respect for that family. Clearly I was mistaken."
"I would say that since Jr is an adult, he should fend for himself like any other adult. If he wants to go to another country to kill an endangered species (horrific in itself), he should go on his own dime. And if he breaks the law, he's fair game to Mongolian law officials," chimed in another.