Posted on 02/17/2017 3:22:48 AM PST by C19fan
0bungler squandered some $84million on personal vacations alone. That figure does not include the amount of taxpayer dollars wasted using Air Force 1 as his personal taxi while wasting more money shilling for Hillary
Three fake journalists were needed to scribble this garbage.
Trump is going home. Big deal. Members of Congress fly home almost every weekend. Long distance commuting by our political elites has been growing for decades. We can discuss whether its a good thing (get them out of the DC bubble and back home) or a bad thing (a waste of taxpayers' money), but it's not a new thing.
This story usually is reported as an exercise in partisan sniping, with figures inflected for effect. It's a bit complicated when you get down into the weeds. No one objects to a working trip with a crowded itinerary. Questions arise when working trips become junkets, with a few scattered official meetings, often vanishingly trivial, to lend cover to visits to ritzy locations. The same thing happens when presidents abuse official travel to attend political events. Then again, presidents do take vacations, and no one objects in moderation. As far as I'm concerned, presidents going back home is in another category altogether, and I don't object to it.
In the days of modern jet air travel, which is the relevant era to consider: LBJ liked to get back to the ranch, as did Reagan and Bush 43. Bush 41 retreated to Kennebunkport when he could. Nixon was not a wealthy man and I don't recall if he kept a private home when he was in the White House, but he liked to get back to California and famously hung out with his buddy Bebe Rebozo in Florida. I don't remember how often Jimmy Carter got back to Plains, but like Nixon, Carter did not live ostentatiously and I don't remember any controversy about his travels.
The two presidents that stick out are Clinton and Obama. The Clintons, of course, did not own a home, having gotten used to the Governor's Mansion and then the White House, but they sure liked to travel. Obama is an oddity because he had a very nice home in Chicago, but seemed to have very little interest in getting back. Most presidents have been very attached to their roots. Of course, for Obama, "roots" seemed to mean Hawaii, not Chicago. But like the Clintons, the Obamas were excessively fond of resort destinations.
The left will always try to equate Reagan and Bush going back to the ranch and chopping wood, when they didn't just go to Camp David, to the Clintons and Obamas jetting around the world to exotic locations at the drop of a hat. It's an old game, and tiresome.
Help help...I am winning too much!!!
The article did mention Judicial Watch’s keeping tabs on 0bama’s vacation expenses.
I don’t begrudge Trump weekends in Florida or in New York. I also didn’t begrudge Obama his travels. The presidency is a killer of a job and the president should be able to relax when he can. I’m not as comfortable with is sons getting Secret Service protection; Carter’s adult children didn’t, Reagan’s adult children didn’t, George W. Bush’s adult children didn’t. But that’s up to the president as well, and if Valarie Jarrett got Secret Service protection then Trump’s boys might as well get it too.
Pelosi flew home every weekend to CA from DC on a 757.
She was only the Speaker of the House.
Trump works in DC, on the plane, at Mar-A-Lago, on the plane back.
Money well spent.
Love that he will be at Boeing in South Carolina today, right after the machinists voted to reject the union.
Do you think trumps family is vulnerable to hate and terrorism and do you think them being unprotected might affect his ability to do his job?
Erik and his wife received envelopes of white powder at their home during the campaign
Chelsea Clinton I believe was granted lifetime secret service protection
What a job
Because Obama's expenses were cavalier and abusive whereas Trump's are just high.
Is that not true of every president's children?
Chelsea Clinton I believe was granted lifetime secret service protection.
I believe you are mistaken.
How much has been spent in the last 30 days on the Zero family elaborate lifestyle - at taxpayer expense?
Chelsea does not have SS protection.
I recall that Chelsea had SS for a short time during the campaign when she supposedly had a key role, but things change dramatically after an election.
Key Trump aids also had SS protection, at least until the election.
double standards will continue to make news
I think Gaucho would be a superior platform for this.
Always the same with these clowns, they don’t care how much a Democrat President spends on anything but there are always aghast at what Republicans spend. They’ll be rolling out the homeless crisis any day now which amazing always disappears when there’s a Democrat administration. The media is completely cooked because no one takes them seriously anymore.
WaPo is just jealous of CNN. They worked so hard for the title of “Very Fake News,” only to lose out to the effortless fakers at the Communist News Network.
Over $96mm; probably well over.
I have read that SS protection can be requested and is decided by Dept of Homeland Security
OR- the day that Obama was on a talk show that taped about 5 PM, and Moooochelle was on The Ellen Show?
They took separate planes-—from the same location -—to the same Los Angeles airport, then separate transportation to their respective shows.
2 planes—2 sets of Secret Service—2 complete sets of cost for that day!!!
The Obamas are grifters who spent taxpayer money like 2 sailors on 8 years leave.
On the Spain trip, Michelle listed her 2 kids as STAFF MEMBERS so the taxpayers paid for them.
Michelle’s mother lived in the White House with them all 8 years. She didn’t have to cook—clean—do laundry—grocery shop—wash windows—vacuum—or anything. She lived a life of pure luxury at taxpayers expense for 8 yeas. In late 2016, Obama declared that she had been the ‘child care person’ for their 2 kids, and arranged for Mama Robinson to get a LIFETIME pensions of $160,000 per year. How many other ‘grandmas’ in the USA get such a pension for babysitting their own grandchildren??? This is pure fraud, IMO.
Keep in mind that the pension of a PRESIDENT is $180,000 a year.
More theft from the Obamas. I sure wish Trump could at least put a halt to the pension for Mama Robinson.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.