Ivanka Trump's luxury trip to Morocco before midterms cost taxpayers nearly $100,000

Days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, when American voters rebuked Donald Trump’s leadership and newly empowered congressional Democrats vowed to investigate “the Trump crime family” for allegedly profiting off his presidency, his beloved daughter Ivanka Trump went on a luxury vacation to Morocco that cost U.S. taxpayers at least $100,000 — and probably more.

The Daily Mail reported that Ivanka Trump’s trip to Marrakech coincided with her 45th birthday on Oct. 30, and she and her entourage were photographed by the local media visiting some of the local markets the day before. Marrakech has become a popular destination for wealthy Europeans and is known for its picturesque old city, packed with markets, the nearly 1000-year-old Kutubiyya Mosque and other cultural and historic sites.

Marrakech also is known for offering luxury accommodations to well-heeled travelers, and it appears that Ivanka Trump enjoyed her getaway to that city, with taxpayers footing some of her expenses, according to federal procurement records obtained by the Daily Mail. Those documents showed that Secret Service agents assigned to protect Ivanka Trump spent $93,000 staying in rooms at two five-star hotels in the city ahead of her trip.

On Oct. 21, a $59,543 contract was issued for hotel rooms at the five-star Sofitel in Marrakech for a Secret Service advance team preparing for a ‘VVIP’ arrival, records show, the Daily Mail reported.

The following day, another contract was issued for $33,457 to house a Secret Service team at La Mamounia, a palatial hotel whose past guests have included Winston Churchill and the Kardashians, the Daily Mail also reported.

Neither record specifically named Ivanka Trump as a reason for the expenditures, but she is the only person receiving Secret Service protection who was known to be in Morocco during that period, the Daily Mail said. Trump family members also are regularly described as “VVIPs” in the same contracting database.

The Daily Mail added that the combined $93,000 hotel bill does not include agents’ salaries, flights, meals or local transportation. When contacted by the Daily Mail for comment, a spokesperson for Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, said they did not have an immediate response.

On her own, Ivanka Trump has an estimated net worth of $100 million, according to People, citing a Forbes’ analysis of the investments and earnings of Trump family members since her father’s return to the White House. But with Ivanka Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, the couple have a combined net worth of more than $1 billion, according to Forbes. That money comes from his private equity firm, Affinity Partners; his family’s real estate firm, Kushner Companies; and Middle Eastern backers he formed relationships with during his time as a presidential adviser during Trump’s first term, People reported.

Both Ivanka Trump and Kushner were senior White House advisers during Trump’s first term. For Trump’s second term, Ivanka has said she would keep out of politics to focus on raising her three children. She also regularly posts social media images of herself enjoying the life of a Miami socialite, and she and her husband have involved themselves in a controversial real estate development deal, building an unpopular $1.4 billion luxury resort in Albania on land that includes a nature preserve.

Kushner likewise has no formal role in Trump’s government but still operates as a top diplomatic envoy on his father-in-law’s behalf, tasked with resolving his father-in-law’s war with Iran and Russia’s war in Ukraine, as the New York Times reported.

But Kushner also has been the subject of news reports over the past year, which include concerns of top Democratic lawmakers that he has used his diplomatic role to raise billions of dollars from Middle East governments for his private-equity fund.

A bombshell new book, published just weeks before the midterm elections, also looked at Kushner’s diplomatic activities during Trump’s first term. The book, “Princes and Thieves: Jared Kushner and Mohamed bin Zayed’s Secret Plot to Remake the Middle East,” documents how Kushner worked with the leader of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, as well as Saudi Arabia’s leader Mohammed bin Salman, to shape U.S. policy across the Middle East. In the course of this work, according to the book, Kushner was given access to bank accounts containing roughly $2 billion.

With Democrats pulling off a landslide victory Tuesday and regaining control of both the House and Senate, Kushner is expected to be a primary focus of congressional investigations into how he and other Trump family members, including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, have allegedly enriched themselves through Trump’s presidency.

“The Trump crime family is the top of our investigative priorities,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the California Democrat poised to chair the House Oversight Committee, said in an interview on Tuesday night, the New York Times reported. Garcia alleged that Trump family members have “engaged in corruption” and offered succinct advice to Kushner and his in-laws: “Lawyer up.”

These corruption allegations are said to have resonated with voters in Tuesday’s election, with the American public angry over rising costs for gasoline and other day-to-day living expenses. Victorious Democratic senate candidates like Jon Ossoff in Georgia and James Talarico in Texas managed to connect “the fear of authoritarianism” and “shameless self-dealing” in the Trump administration “to the broader public’s fear that life is unaffordable,” contributing opinion writer Peter Beiter said in the New York Times.

For that reason, Ivanka Trump’s luxury getaway — with her security funded by U.S. taxpayers — is likely to face further scrutiny, according to the Daily Mail.

Federal law authorizes Secret Service protection for a sitting president’s immediate family, including adult children, regardless of whether they hold government roles, the Daily Mail reported. But government watchdogs have in the past called on the wealthy Trump family to reimburse taxpayers for Secret Service expenses.

During Trump’s first administration, his daughter’s trips with her family also drew headlines, according to the Daily Mail. A ski trip with her husband and three children to Canada in 2017 racked up $59,654 in Secret Service expenses for hotel rooms and other costs, while a 2018 getaway to the Dominican Republic cost nearly $60,000.

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