Mar-a-Lago billed the White House $1,000 for top-shelf liquor that government aides reportedly served themselves
While President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping enjoyed a steak dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, Secret Service agents and White House aides were reportedly having an extravaganza of their own.
After Trump and Xi's dinner in April 2017, then-White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin and then-Chief Strategist Stephen Bannon went into Mar-a-Lago's Library Bar with a group of advisers and told the bartender to leave so they could "speak confidentially," an email from a Mar-a-Lago staffer shows. "Secret Service did not allow the bartender to enter the room again," and "the group served themselves," the emails — obtained by ProPublica and WNYC — continue.
"Served themselves" puts it a bit lightly. The group downed 54 top-shelf drinks and left without paying, per emails and a $1005.60 bill that Mar-a-Lago sent to the State Department a few days later and ProPublica obtained. The emails from Mar-a-Lago's catering director didn't specify who was doing the drinking, though Bannon told ProPublica he hasn't had a drink in years, and Hagin didn't respond to requests for comment. Also unexplained is just why Mar-a-Lago charged a 20 percent service fee when its bartender was clearly not doing the serving.
Picture it: Around Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Mar-a-Lago, some folks head to the bar, including Bannon.
They kick out bartender. They drink. 54 glassses. (Bannon says he doesn’t.)
They leave, w/o getting bill.
So who paid? You. https://t.co/IzT6VVHJ1H pic.twitter.com/nlmUczyFtG— Eric Umansky (@ericuman) May 1, 2019
The State Department refused to pay the hefty tab, so the White House ended up covering it, presumably with taxpayer money, ProPublica reports. The White House didn't respond to a request for comment or say if it asked any partakers to split the bill. Read more at ProPublica or listen to WNYC's Trump, Inc. podcast episode on the subject here.