No matter how much you think you spend on travel, nothing compares to what it takes to satisfy the demands and safety of the President of the United States.
The Washington Post reports on the immense cost a presidential itinerary mandates, compiling all the items that need to be addressed as President Donald Trump prepared for a weekend away from the White House at Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.
Taking care of the travel plans of this magnitude normally takes careful planning and tremendous expense.
Trump’s family and the myriad locations they reside offer a particularly difficult and expensive task for officials.
As The Post explains, on this particular weekend, Trump will have been in Florida, Melania Trump in New York City at Trump Tower while Eric and Don Jr. would be in the United Arab Emirates.
When you consider the cost of secret service and the minute detail that goes into securing the first family, things can quickly become astronomical.
The Post states: “Barely a month into the Trump presidency, the unusually elaborate lifestyle of America’s new first family is straining the Secret Service and security officials, stirring financial and logistical concerns in several local communities, and costing far beyond what has been typical for past presidents—a price tag that, based on past assessments of presidential travel and security costs, could balloon into the hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of a four-year term.”
As for the reference to local communities, we have seen that play out recently in Florida as Lantana Airport is forced to shutter when the president is in town.
TravelPulse’s Rich Thomaselli writes the impact is in the upwards of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Associated Press, in its report, cites a great loss for the owner of a local flying school: “She lost $28,000 combined the last two weekends and will lose $18,000 on this President’s Day weekend. She estimates her 19 instructors are each losing up to $750 a weekend.”
The Post states that Palm Beach police also have to contend with the fiscal burden and put the cost at “about $60,000 a day in overtime police payments.”
As The Post and Complex note, Trump was especially critical of Barack Obama’s travel expenditures and the toll it took on taxpayers. The report even makes a comparison between the two and establishes Trump is well on his way to surpassing the travel cost garnered by the previous administration.
Via The Washington Post: “Judicial Watch estimated that Obama-related travel expenses totaled nearly $97 million over eight years. But based on the first four weeks, Trump’s presidency appears on track to cost hundreds of millions of dollars more.”
As we have learned, guarding and transporting the president is a remarkably expensive task—regardless of party line.