President Donald Trump's frequent trips to Palm Beach, Florida have already cost taxpayers $10 million in 30 days. Considering President Barack Obama ran up a bill of $97 million for his eight years in office, Trump is at a tenth of that just over his weekly visits to his vast Mar-a-Lago estate on the weekends. The $10 million price tag has culminated over the course of three weekends. President Trump declares Mar-a-Lago his "winter White House."
Trump's mini-vacations are adding up for taxpayers
President Trump is making good on a number of campaign promises, but many believe he's falling short on one of them.
He tore into former President Barack Obama for his golf getaways and skewered him for costs he was running up to taxpayers anytime he went on vacation. Now it appears the shoe is on the other foot, and that Trump doesn't have a care in the world that he's making weekly trips to Florida on Air Force One. It costs $200,000 an hour to fly on Air Force One, which doesn't include the additional costs to taxpayers for Secret Service protection.
It's not just President Trump that is being protected, but his entire family that includes four grown children. Secret Service and other security agents are assigned to multiple homes and accompany the Trump kids on travels abroad when they conduct business.
The amounts to taxpayers are astronomical and have become a challenging task for protection details.
It also costs taxpayers an average of $500,000 per day for Melania Trump's protection at Trump Tower in New York City. She's staying there with 10-year-old son, Barron, until he finishes out the school year in June. At that point she and Barron will move to the White House.
Trumps could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in protection
According to reports, if the president and the rest of the Trump family continue as they are, it will amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars more in protection to taxpayers than the Obama family ever had on the books. Judicial Watch is a conservative group that keeps tabs on what the president racks up in bills to taxpayers when it comes to vacations and other travel expenses while in office.
The director of the group, Tom Fitton, says President Trump should "recognize" that conducting business at Mar-a-Lago "doesn't come free." The president hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife at his Florida estate two weeks ago.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham insists that President Trump is working in some capacity as President of the United States when he's at Mar-a-Lago. He may feel that since he's working to some degree at his "winter White House," that his frequent trips to the Florida estate doesn't qualify as a "vacation."
