Palm Beach has applied for its slice of federal money set aside to pay back communities for the costs of protecting President Donald Trump and his historic Mar-a-Lago home.
The town submitted an application seeking about $166,292 from the Presidential Residence Protection Assistant Grant program for overtime costs related to Trump’s protection at his landmarked 17-acre Palm Beach estate, records show.
The Town Council at the June 9 meeting approved the application as part of its consent agenda, a group of actions on which the council votes as a batch without discussion. The town submitted its grant application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency on May 22 ahead of the May 29 deadline, records show.
This round of the annual grant was for money spent protecting Trump between July 1, 2024, and Sept. 30, 2025, according to FEMA. Palm Beach Chief of Police Nicholas Caristo said in a memo to the council that FEMA expects to decide which communities will receive grants no later than Aug. 28 with money delivered by Sept. 30.
FEMA budgeted up to $90 million for the grant program for the 2025 fiscal year, the agency said in a fact sheet for law-enforcement agencies posted in April on FEMA.gov. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” budget bill, which was signed into law on July 4, included $300 million to reimburse eligible law-enforcement agencies for presidential-protection costs through Sept. 30, 2029.
Trump began his second term in the White House on Jan. 20, 2025. Security around his properties had increased in July of the previous year after an attempted assassination of the then-Republican presidential candidate during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Security costs in Palm Beach County increased again after another attempted assassination at Trump’s golf course in suburban West Palm Beach in September 2024.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump in 2019 declared Mar-a-Lago their permanent residence.
Palm Beach officials previously confirmed to the Palm Beach Daily News that they would seek reimbursement through the grant program. The grants are available only to eligible agencies in Delaware, Florida, New Jersey and New York, according to FEMA. Trump has homes in Florida, New York and New Jersey, while former President Joe Biden’s primary residence is in Delaware.
The U.S. Secret Service is tasked with presidential protection, but local, regional and state law enforcement agencies provide security assistance for presidential travel and around the president’s and former presidents’ non-governmental residences.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office also planned to apply for reimbursement for some of the tens of millions of dollars spent to protect Trump on his visits to Palm Beach County, according to past reporting by The Palm Beach Post. The sheriff’s office was expected to spend more than $45 million per year protecting Trump and Mar-a-Lago as of last summer, The Post reported.
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and the West Palm Beach Police Department also may be eligible for reimbursement for costs related to protecting Trump.
The president’s visits to Palm Beach during the period covered by the grant included a high-profile meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in July 2024. That period also included a lengthy stretch following Trump’s November 2024 election, when he hosted a number of potential cabinet members and high-profile Republican and international officials at Mar-a-Lago ahead of his inauguration.
The federal government launched the grant program in 2017 with $41 million to reimburse local governments for the costs of protecting Trump and his homes, FEMA records show. For each fiscal year of Trump’s first term, Congress allocated $41 million for the program, according to FEMA.
After Trump left office in 2021, the program’s total award amount dwindled, initially to $12.7 million in 2021 ad then to $3 million per year in 2022 and 2023 during Biden’s presidency, according to FEMA.
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach applies for federal grant to cover Trump security costs
Reporting by Kristina Webb, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kristina Webb, Palm Beach Daily News | USA TODAY Network
