In a recent blog post in Think
Progress, author Aaron Rupar noted that Trump will spend his 7th consecutiveweekend at a Trump-branded property while taxpayers foot the bill. This weekend
was Trump’s fifth trip to his Mar-a-Lago club since taking office despite
promises on the campaign trail that he would not take any vacations because
there is so much work to be done. It’s bad enough that each trip costs
taxpayers $3 million, but because it is a Trump owned property much of that
money goes right into his pocket. Days before Trump’s first visit to Mar-a-Lago
as president, the Trump organization announced that the initiation fees were doubling
to $200,000. While Trump was very outspoken in criticizing President Obama for
taking time off to play golf, in his first month in office Trump golfed six
times at a cost to taxpayers of $10 million. During his eight years in office
Obama averaged $12 million a year on vacations.
This frivolous waste of taxpayer’s
money is especially troubling given Trump’s recent budget proposal where he
seeks to do away with programs like Meals on Wheels, NPR, PBS, and the National
Endowment for the Arts. As the author points out so far Trump has spent $16.5
million on trips to Mar-a-Lago alone. For that money Meals on Wheels could feed
almost 6,000 seniors for a year and after school programs could feed 114,583
children for a year. This doesn’t even account for the millions we are spending
on security so Melania can remain in Trump Tower where the secret service pays
rent directly to the Trump Corporation or the millions we are spending flying
his adult children around the world on vacations and business trips. One has to
wonder how long it will take the working class Trump supporters that he
promised to help to figure out they have been scammed.
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