Every four/eight years you’ll see new groups decrying how much it costs the US President to travel, especially when the White House switches parties. Surely enough, ABC News reports a wide variety of sources questioning the need for President Trump to travel to his residence in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, as frequently as he has since taking office.
I’ll leave the politics out of it and frankly leave it up to the President to decide what travel is important to him/her (leaving the politics out of it because frankly I’d probably find fault in it regardless who was in office). However, what’s interesting to me is WHY it costs so much to transport the President.
The typical presidential trip involves at least:
- 2-5 Sikorsky Nighthawk or White Hawk helicopters (one, carrying the President, with the callsign Marine One and the rest in formation as decoys)
- 2 heavily-modified Boeing 747 aircraft (one, carrying the President, with the callsign Air Force One and the other a decoy)
- 10+ support vehicles
- 2 Presidential Limousines
- 1+ Lockheed C-5 Galaxy aircraft to transport vehicles
- A litany of support vehicles from local public safety organizations
Add all of that together and absolutely it’s going to cost an incredible amount to transport the President. It’s deemed as necessary, though, since it is all to look after the supposed leader of the free world.
One of my favorite YouTube channels, Wendover Productions, released a video a few days ago which walks through the publicly available information presidential transport costs and arrives at a pretty crazy figure per-minute. Check out the video below because it walks through everything we know about how the President travels and it’s incredibly interesting:
I still think it’s a bit crazy to have all of that support staff on every trip but then again it’s the President of the United States so it’s hard to argue against anything that keeps him/her safe. What do you think?
Obama was the most traveled president we’ve ever had – http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article123335079.html He spent upwards of $85 million — just on his travel alone. The costs associated with his daughters and the first lady are in addition to that. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/22/obamas-hawaii-christmas-vacations-cost-taxpayers-3/
I think it cost Obama the same or more since he and mrs obama wouldn’t travel on the same plane together. So if no one cared how much Obama spent why is this a story? Pretty close to ” fake news.”
Your headline should say “It costs the US taxpayer….”
Trump makes money from his travel (because he charges for the secret service et al. to stay at his properties), it doesn’t cost him.
I think spending that amount for a 1930s Nuremberg style rally in the first month of office, because he wants to “be among friends” is an absolute disgrace. It’s amazing he has time to do so, as apparently America is in carnage and burning.
If he does manage to squeeze it in between his public high level security meetings in his country club, he should do it on his own dime.
What do you think Andy? Got the stones to take a non neutral stance to either offend liberals or the white supremacists? I do.
If anything it will ignite your post and clicks 😉
I keep my politics pretty close to the vest, disliking both parties equally depending on the day 🙂