The White House insisted on Thursday that taxpayers should continue to pay $180,000 per hour for President Donald Trump’s weekend flights aboard Air Force One to and from his properties in New Jersey and Florida.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders, however, dodged a question from DailyMail.com about whether that use of taxpayer money set a permissive tone that seemed to justify his cabinet members’ use of private and government jets for their own travel.
Trump is ‘not allowed to travel in a different way other than in a secure airplane as Air Force One,’ Sanders said during Thursday’s press briefing.
And she insisted that ‘every weekend that he’s traveling, no matter where he is, the president is working.’
President Donald Trump has used Air Force One 17 times this year to spend weekends at his golf and resort properties in Florida and New Jersey
Mar-a-Lago in Palm beach, Florida, was the official ‘Winter White House’ this year, and got seven presidential visits on the taxpayers’ dime
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was forced out last week after it emerged that he spent more than $1 million on chartered jets – the cost of flying Air Force One for less than six hours
‘This is a president that is committed to helping move his agenda forward, and certainly I think that those weekends have been very successful in doing that,’ she added.
She cited key meetings with world leaders, but didn’t address why they couldn’t have taken place at the White House.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price was kicked out the door last Friday following revelations that he spent more than $1 million in taxpayer funds on private flights, largely for routes that are served by commercial airlines.
White House counselor Kellyannd Conway was on at least one of those flights, a 137-mile trip from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia and back – at a cost of $25,000.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry chartered a jet to Ohio a week ago.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has spent $58,000 of government funds on non-commercial flights to his home state of Oklahoma since taking the job.
And Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is the subject of an internal investigation for using government aircraft to visit Kentucky at the time of the solar eclipse in August. He also requested the use of an Air Force jet for his honeymoon.
Trump visited his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey last weekend during one working vacation and awarded the President’s Cup trophy to American golfers
Air Force One costs approximately $180,000 per hour to operate; the President of the United States is required to travel on this 747, or another smaller place, both of which have high-tech security, military and communications facilities
Energy Secretary Rick Perry (behind Trump in the blue sportcoat) chartered a jet last week to fly to Ohio, a state served by at least six commercial airlines
The president has spent seven weekends at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida this year, and another ten at his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Those 17 working vacation weekends comprise nearly half of the 37 calendar weekends since his January 20 inauguration.
During the first eight months of the previous administration, Barack Obama spent just one weekend at home in Chicago, and another seven at Camp David.
Getting to that bucolic retreat, which Trump has used just twice, doesn’t require the use of Air Force One, A Marine helicopter instead ferries the president there at a far lower cost.
Trump will take Air Force One to Greensboro, North Carolina on Saturday to speak at a fundraising event that will benefit both his re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee.
Former president Barack Obama used Air Force One sparingly for weekends away from the White House, but was criticized for long vacations to Martha’s Vineyard and Hawaii
Marine One, the president’s designated helicopter, can ferry him to the retreat at Camp David at a far lower cost than an Air Force One trip to Florida or New jersey
Sanders said Thursday that ‘for a political event, that will be reimbursed.’
She didn’t say which campaign committee would pay the government back for Trump’s travel.
More telling, she deferred a question on whether the reimbursement would cover the total cost of flying the presidential 747, or just the equivalent cost of commercial air travel for Trump and his key aides.
‘I’d have to check on that,’ she said.
Price pledged to reimburse the U.S. Treasury in the amount of $51,000 for his $1 million in private flights, saying that was the equivalent cost of full-fare commercial tickets to his destinations.