Trump’s working vacation cost more than $185,000
73% of weekends spent at personal properties
Last August, President Trump spent 17 days in Bedminster, N.J., on what he called a working vacation. The cost for that trip? More than $185,000.
Internal documents from the Secret Service and the Air Force obtained, reviewed and verified by USA TODAY showed the cost breakdowns — providing a detailed look at how much the trip to Trump’s personal property cost taxpayers.
Trump often travels to his own properties on the weekend. A USA TODAY review of the president’s first year in office showed he visited at least one of his properties on 38 of 52 weekends, or about 73% of his weekends since becoming president.
Though the exact cost of this travel is unclear, the trips put a strain on Secret Service resources.
President Obama’s trips also were far from cheap. According to Air Force documents acquired by Judicial Watch, Obama’s final trip as president to Martha’s Vineyard in August 2016 was more than $450,000 in flight costs.
The main reason for the cost difference: Obama had a longer flight to Massachusetts compared with Trump’s travels to New Jersey, which meant he used the larger Boeing VC-25. The aircraft, typically used for Air Force One, has a high cost per flying hour.
Presidential flights
Over the course of his 17-day trip, Trump flew a total of six times on Boeing
C-32s, the aircraft more typically used for vice presidential and other official travel. That led to 7.4 hours of travel time.
Those flight costs totaled $118,355.60.
Trump traveled to and from Morristown Municipal Airport. In Bedminster, he stayed at the Trump National Golf Club. He went back to Washington for meetings on Chinese trade practices, and he went to New York and Camp Da- vid, Md. The most costly trip was when the president went to Camp David on Aug. 18 for a military strategy meeting, then flew back to Bedminster, resulting in flight costs of $36,786.20.
The Air Force declined to comment on the travel.
Secret Service stays
The Secret Service racked up a bill of $46,188.56 for hotel lodging during the Bedminster trip.
The Secret Service booked rooms at a Courtyard Marriott property from July 31 to Aug. 26, 2017. Trump stayed Aug. 4-20, according to the documents.
The documents show that 38 agents rotated staying at the hotel. Stays ranged from one to 16 days.
Other Secret Service costs during the Bedminster trip include spending $7,100 on luxury portable restrooms and $13,600 on golf cart rentals.
The Secret Service did not return requests for comment.