(CNN) – Former President Donald Trump has spent his first five months away from Washington surrounded by a generously paid group of staffers, at least one of whom received a $32,000 raise over their White House salary, according to Freedom of Information Act records obtained by CNN.
As of May 12, the compensation for aides kept on by Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, who received about 20% of the $2.6 million sum available to both men in accordance with the Presidential Transaction Act, totaled $1.26 million. The lump sum for transition activities, which is managed by the General Services Administration during a former president’s first six months out of office, is typically applied toward rent for a suitable office space, staff salaries and benefits, and printing and postage expenses.
In Trump’s case, the bulk of the funds available to him have been used to pay several ex-White House staffers who remained by his side at his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida — where he has been building out a post-presidential political machine — before he relocated earlier this month to his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, where he and his team will spend the summer. The FOIA records, which the Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) shared with CNN, show that everyone from Trump’s post-presidential communications director Dan Scavino and adviser Stephen Miller to an unidentified personal aide are receiving six-figure salaries.
While some aides took double-digit pay cuts from what they were making inside the Trump White House, one press assistant whose name was redacted in the records saw their salary increase from $58,000 to $90,000 annually. Like others assisting Trump with his transition, the aide was expected to receive benefits totaling an additional several thousand dollars between January 21 and July 21. Some of these details were first reported by Business Insider on Monday.
Unlike Trump, who boasted a net worth around $3.1 billion when he entered office in January 2017 and owns several sprawling properties and golf clubs across the US, past presidents have often leased pricey urban office spaces to house their post-presidential operations after transitioning out of the Oval Office. According to a GSA report submitted to Congress in 2004, for instance, the agency “awarded a 10-year office lease for former President [Bill] Clinton for $346,128 per year” located in upper Manhattan after the 42nd President left office.
“George H.W. Bush had, like, one little old lady who answered phones and responded to letters from the Boy Scouts,” said a former US official previously involved in transition planning. “Because Trump is working out of a property he owns, he’s likely been able to keep office space costs down and employ a larger team.”
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As of May 12, the compensation for aides kept on by Trump and Pence — who received about 20% of the $2.6 million sum available to both men in accordance with the Presidential Transaction Act — totaled $1.26 million. https://t.co/GWtffWc5u2
— CNN (@CNN) May 19, 2021
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