It's expensive to take care of any president.
Donald Trump, however, is no ordinary president.
The Los Angeles Times reports Trump's relatively short tenure as the commander-in-chief has had an extraordinary expense when it comes to maintaining the safety of the first family and their travel demands.
The report reminds that it's extremely difficult to hammer down the exact numbers when it comes to travel costs incurred by an administration. However, it does cite sources that have helped the publication work out care and travel costs for the first family, running upwards of $30 million so far during his presidency.
This would represent a huge increase from the previous administration. The Times' Barbara Demick writes: "By comparison, the conservative think tank Judicial Watch found that costs for President Obama and his much smaller family averaged $12 million a year."
The report points to both Trump's larger family as well as its travel proclivities and peculiarities that make protecting well being quite the expense: The president himself has marked the first 100 days with frequent trips to his Florida oasis at Mar-a-Lago. His wife, Melania, lives at Trump Tower in New York City. Trump's older children continue to traverse the world in the name of the Trump brand.
All of the above demand more than simple travel costs but also security detail to make sure every member of the family remains safe.
The L.A. Times explains that when it comes to protecting the president and family, expenses are felt by officials outside the federal government: Mar-a-Lago trips garner about $60,000 in overtime for Palm Beach County officers during Trump's weekend stays. The figure reached $250,000 when Chinese President Xi Jinping recently visited.
The trips themselves are tremendously more expensive, ranging anywhere from $1 million a weekend to $3.6 million. This is thanks to security costs as well as travel expenditures.
As an intriguing addendum, travel enthusiasts can now regale pals with exactly how much it costs to fly Air Force One thanks to the report: $142,000 an hour-and you thought business class was expensive.
Airborne expenditures reach as far as Manhattan where Melania Trump sometimes boards a Boeing C-32, which costs $38,922 an hour. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the costs it takes to secure the first lady and youngest son Barron. The New York Police Department contends it is spending between $127,000 and $146,000 a day on the family there.
And this unique set of circumstances has now found its way into the federal budget in the form of the recent funding bill. New York and Palm Beach will get $61 million in reimbursement while the Secret Service will get an additional $13 million to satisfy the demands of looking after the first family.
The LA Times quotes a section of the bill that explains the impetus behind the expenditures: "Although the federal government does not otherwise reimburse costs of state or local law enforcement for activities in support of the United States Secret Service protection mission, these funds are being provided in recognition of the extraordinary costs borne by a small number of jurisdictions in which a residence of the president is located."
Simply, the first family is particularly large and-because of demands with the Trump brand as well as Mrs. Trump's decision to stay in New York-are uniquely spread across the world at any given moment.
Former Secret Service agent Dan Bogino explains "You have people with not only heavy travel schedules, but heavy business schedules with enormous public profiles. Donald Trump Jr. is like a brand in and of itself."
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton explains that his group, one that was critical of Obama's travel habits, has asked for exact numbers behind Trump's trips. He now tells the Times that, perhaps, the president should know better:
"There should be some sensitivity on his part. He owns planes so he knows what it costs to fly one."
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Back in April, Washington University Law Ethics Professor Kathleen Clark told CBS News: "The bottom line on how much it's costing the taxpayers is absolutely something I think the public and Congress has the right to know."
Until these kinds of pleas lead to an official release, transparency over exact travel expenditures will have to be left up to cited sources and carefully considered conjecture.
The only thing that can be said for sure is that it's expensive to keep the president safe amid his travels. That fact is exacerbated by a family that continues to travel the world, taking the Secret Service and other government agencies along with them for the ride.
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