The Government Accountability Office has announced it will begin a review of the costs of Trump’s visits to Mar-a-Lago. Each weekend trip is estimated to cost the taxpayer $3.3 million and there have been seven such visits during Trump’s presidency so far. This doesn’t include daily overtime pay of $85,000 for county and city police officers when Trump is in town or the costs to local businesses when roads and airways are closed.
Trump seems likely to spend more on travel in his first year in office than Obama spent in his entire 8 years as president. The irony will doubtless be lost on Trump who frequently criticised Obama for his travel costs.
There are of course massive conflicts of interest in Trump’s use of his ‘Winter White House’ as can be seen by the increase in the membership fee of the Mar-a-Lago Club from $100,000 to $200,000 in January 2017 upon Trump taking office.
Incidentally, the lady who built Mar-a-Lago, Marjorie Merriweather Post, bequeathed the house to the nation in 1973 but successive presidents declined to use it so it reverted to Post’s estate. Five years later, using underhand tactics, Trump bought the place for $7 million, a fraction of what it was worth.