President Obama spent $97 million on travel while he was in office. Trump is on pace to outspend him in less than one year.
In just his first month in office, President Donald Trump has cost taxpayers almost $10 million in travel expenses, according to calculations from the Washington Post — meaning he’s on track to far exceed the amount President Obama’s travel cost in eight years.
The figure for Trump’s trips, calculated from an October 2016 Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimate of presidential travel costs to Florida, includes only the expenses associated with Trump’s three trips to Mar-a-Lago — which he’s dubbed the “winter White House” — since the inauguration. It doesn’t factor in other costs, such as his adult sons’ recent trip to the United Arab Emirates to open the new Trump-branded golf resort and the associated Secret Service tab.
According to the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, Obama’s travel costs during his eight years in office totaled about $97 million. If Trump maintains his current pace, he’ll outspend Obama in less than one year.
Trump, before he was president, was a vocal critic of Obama’s travel, frequently tweetingdigs and appearing on Fox News to further publicize his critiques. And in his first formal interview following his election, Trump told CBS’s 60 Minutes, “I don’t think we’ll be very big on vacations, no.”
Perhaps the stresses of the office have convinced him otherwise.
