
Repeated visits by President Donald Trump to his golf club in Sterling have raised questions about the use of local taxpayer funds for security support.
STERLING, Va. โ Residents of a Loudoun County neighborhood say repeated visits by President Donald Trump to his golf club in Sterling have disrupted their day-to-day and raised questions about the use of local taxpayer funds for security support.
Mara Moreland, who lives in the Lowes Island community near Trump National Golf Club, said the neighborhood has been shut down four times since January, preventing her and others from entering or leaving their homes.
“It doesn’t matter who we voted for. We just want to be able to access our house,” Moreland said.
Moreland described being stopped by law enforcement and denied access to her neighborhood, despite showing identification.
“I tried to show them my ID. I tried to tell them that I live here,” she explained. “They basically said to me, ‘Nobody in, nobody out.'”
Loudoun County officials are now evaluating the financial toll of providing security assistance during Trump’s visits. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, which has coordinated with the U.S. Secret Service, said the costs are putting a strain on its overtime budget.
“We are not being reimbursed for that,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Sawyer during a recent Loudoun County Board of Supervisors meeting. “We have asked in writing and we will continue to ask because the resources are significant.”
He told the room “our overtime budget is not designed to support this.”
“So, the taxpayers in Loudon County are paying taxes so the president of the United States can play golf and we’re not being reimbursed for that cost,” asked Vice Chair and Ashburn District Supervisor Michael Turner.
“What if we just didn’t provide the service since we’re not being reimbursed? Are there some legal obligation that local law enforcement has to reinforce the president’s golf games?,” he asked the sheriff’s office.
Sawyer explained that LCSO has provided “presidential support” for every sitting president, when asked by United States Secret Service.
“That does not mean that they get everything because there hits a point where we say, no, we can’t provide certain levels because it just becomes too much,” he said.
“Are we required to provide if we’re not being reimbursed?” Turner asked.
“I don’t know that the federal government can require us to do that,” Sawyer respond. “However, security in Loudon County we take that pretty seriously, and the last thing we want is an incident occurring in Loudon County.”
Julie Briskman, who lives near the golf course is also the Algonkian District supervisor and chair of the county’s finance committee.
“It feels like an increased presence of our local law enforcement. It feels different than it did in the first term,” she told WUSA9.
She has requested a detailed report on how much the county has spent on these visits.
“With everything going on with quote-unquote waste, fraud, and abuse, I decided that we should figure out how much this is costing the county,” Briskman said.
Briskman also questioned the nature of the events that prompt the visits.ย
“If it’s a campaign event, then your campaign should be funding the security,” she said. “If it’s an official White House presidential event, then I can understand spending taxpayer dollars on it, but in a transparent way.”
“The Florida sheriff who is responsible for the Mar a Lago area is coming to his board of commissioners for $45 million because of how many times Trump has been coming down to Mar a Lago. So again we’re responsible for taxpayer funding and allocating those dollars, and I can tell you a $45 million bill from our sheriff’s department to protect President Trump would not be going over very well with our taxpayers,” said Briskman.
Palm Beach County said in January that POTUS security costs were estimated to be between $35 million and $40 million a year.


During a January hearing, Palm Beach County administrator Verdenia Baker said there is a federal policy in place for reimbursement, and they were previously reimbursed for all of the costs.
She explained that they were “working to get the language modified to cover the particular cost” this time.
Monday night, United States Secret Service Spokesperson, Anthony Gulielmi shared the following statement with WUSA9:
State and local law enforcement play a crucial role in our ability to effectively safeguard Secret Service protectees, and we are grateful for their support. The Secret Service does not have the authority or a mechanism to directly reimburse local governments for assistance, however we continue to work together with the Administration and Congress to explore solutions for this vital need.
Briskman said the lack of reimbursement options suggests a need for legislative action. “We either need to work directly with the administration to get reimbursed, or we need to have a bill in Congress,” she said.
It’s not clear when the Sheriff’s Office will provide the report, but once they do, Briskman says, “I hope to see historical data from the last term. I want to see historical data for the several times that he’s been here this term, and I want to make sure that our budget can handle it.”
She said she wants to look at where things are with overtime, and how far over the LCSO is in terms of manpower.
“So that we can have a real conversation about what this is costing the county and the county taxpayers,” said Briskman.