LONDON — There’s something comfortably retro about the British royal family. No matter the geopolitical or domestic turmoil, you can count on them to be there, lurching from one scandal to the next.
It’s a lesson that Donald Trump seems to have taken to heart — with the U.S. president’s sometimes glamorous, sometimes goofy, never-not-scandalous first family traipsing after him to global summits and state visits.
The trouble is that maintaining bevvies of VIPs can be expensive — especially as economies threaten to turn sour. Whether the cost is worth the benefit isn’t always clear, however, as neither the U.S. nor the U.K. is terribly transparent when it comes to funding their first families.
Below, POLITICO takes a stab at tallying up the price tag for the British royals and the presidential brood, and dishes each family a Sponger rating for how much they’re costing the taxpayer.
The royals
The scandals swirling around the royals in recent months have focused on Prince Andrew’s connections to the late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and Harry and Meghan’s use of private planes while lecturing the rest of us about climate change.
Members of the British royal family, from left: Princess Eugenie of York; Princess Beatrice of York; Camilla, duchess of Cornwall; Catherine, duchess of Cambridge; Meghan, duchess of Sussex; Prince Harry, duke of Sussex; Peter Phillips, Autumn Phillips, Isla Phillips and Savannah Phillips | Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images
Both raise a similar question: To what extent should taxpayers pick up the tab for minor royals?
The queen herself is funded through the £82.2-million-a-year Sovereign Grant, which came to about £1.24 per taxpayer in the last financial year. She uses this for the upkeep of all her palaces (including the £2.4 million renovation of Harry and Meghan’s pad, Frogmore Cottage), as well as her staffing and travel costs.
Fifteen other senior royals are largely financed by two slush funds set up by King Edward III in the 14th Century: the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster. With vastly valuable holdings of residential and agricultural land, their combined income last year stood at £43.3 million.
Then there’s the cost of police protection, covering not just the Fab 16 but also some of their children, including such lesser figures as Andrew’s daughters, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, ninth and 10th in line to the throne respectively.
The exact budget for guarding the royals is not public, but in 2017 it was estimated the Royalty and Specialist Protection Team — also responsible for guarding government ministers and foreign dignitaries — had running costs of £128 million.
Prince George, who appears to have had quite enough of the King’s Cup regatta, hosted by his parents in August | Splash News via Belga
Following criticism of expensive royal travel — including some £126,000 charged to the taxpayer for protecting Princess Eugenie during her gap year to Asia, America and Africa — it was reported that the younger members of the family were being urged to ditch the Royal Train and private jets in favor of budget travel.
William and Kate at least seem to have got the memo: Last month the duke and duchess of Cambridge and their family boarded a £73.05 Flybe flight from Norwich to Aberdeen.
This was interpreted as a delicious act of trolling by the parents-of-three, coming as it did after William’s brother Harry suggested it was an eco-crime to have more than two children before dashing off for the first of four journeys by private jet. A grateful and cash-strapped nation saluted the thrifty couple, while pouring scorn on the newlyweds.
POLITICO’s Sponger Rating: 9.5 / 10
Would have been 10 if not for William and Kate’s Flybe flight.
The Trumps
When it comes to salaries, the Trump family is cheap compared with the British royal family. Presidential compensation has remained the same since 2001 at $400,000 a year, along with a $50,000 expense allowance, $100,000 travel account and $19,000 entertainment budget. First lady Melania Trump draws no salary, but her own support staff costs about $500,000 a year. The pair live at the White House for free along with their teenage son, Barron.
The president’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, both employed as senior White House advisers, also draw no salary.
The only Trump offspring who lives with the president and first lady at the White House is their 13-year-old son Barron | Pool photo by Chris Kleponis via Getty Images
So, are Americans actually getting a good deal? Not quite.
As with the British royals, the real strain on the public purse comes from keeping up with the itchy feet of young, energetic VIPs who are at best vulnerable and at worst a hostage situation waiting to happen.
Flying teams of bodyguards around the world is proving particularly pricey in the case of the Trump administration. The president has five children, four of whom are adults, three with children of their own, leading to a total of eighteen family members entitled to protection.
The full cost of guarding the Trump children and grandchildren is not available, however breakdowns for some individual trips have been released by the Government Accountability Office at the request of Congress, giving us a glimpse into the sums involved.
For example, we know that Trump’s decision to invite his adult children to accompany him on his state visit to the U.K. in June cost taxpayers $3.5 million and that his frequent trips to his Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago each come with a similar price tag, at around $3.4 million per visit.
More broadly, Trump’s lack of enthusiasm for the White House is costing U.S. taxpayers dearly. By October, he will have racked up 1,000 days in office, nearly 300 of which have been spent at his own properties, and more than 200 at golf resorts. In May, it was reported that the U.S. government had spent $102 million to facilitate presidential rounds of golf, including $60,000 on renting golf carts for the secret service to trail along behind him in one year alone.
As with the minor royals, it’s the personal travel by lesser Trumps that is the most eye-catching.
Donald Trump and his family on stage celebrating his election-night victory in 2016. From left: Barron and Melania Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka, Tiffany and Vanessa Trump; Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump and Lara Yunaska | Mark Wilson/Getty Images
A November 2018 business trip by Donald Trump, Jr. to India, where he sought to sell a family condominium, set taxpayers back nearly $100,000. When the president’s youngest daughter Tiffany visited Serbia in March it cost $23,000; two months later she spent a weekend at the Cannes Film Festival. The price tag: $19,000.
Thanks to Trump’s international property portfolio, his companies often make money off his family’s trips to his properties. In February 2017, for example, Donald Jr., Eric and Tiffany Trump all travelled to Vancouver to open a new Trump hotel; the cost of putting up the secret service at the Trump International Hotel and Tower Vancouver was $20,000.
It was not long after that, in August, that the head of the secret service warned that the agency is at risk of running out of money due to the strain of protecting the extensive Trump family.
POLITICO’s Sponger Rating: 9/10
The Trumps certainly share the royals’ love of lavishness and carelessness about public funds. But the U.S. has one big advantage. Presidencies last four to eight years, and Trump’s family members will lose their protection as soon as he leaves office (Trump himself will continue to receive secret service protection for another 10 years). Unlike the Brits, U.S. taxpayers won’t be stuck paying the first family’s bills forever. Unless Ivanka runs for president. Or Barron marries Princess Charlotte …