Travel Costs Of 5 US Presidents: How Much Does It Cost Taxpayers To Fund The President's Travels?

President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago trips have cost the U.S taxpayers around $24 million already - that is almost as much Obama spent on his travels in his first two years as president. Obama spent an average of $12.1 million in travels per year - Trump is near to the annual target in just one month as he spent at least $10 million in three golf vacations only out of the total of seven trips to his resort. Trump has not yet traveled abroad.

According to CNN, earlier this month Trump has been at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Florida, for a total of 21 days till now during his 80 days of presidency, which could have cost an estimated $21.6 million.

Trump might be on track to spend more taxpayer money on travel during his first year of presidency than former President Barack Obama spent during his eight years in office.

President Donald Trump, in his 2018 budget plan, proposed to cut down on some social programs as well as research projects and allocate those funds for homeland security and defense. But spending more than $12 million for seven trips to Mar-a-Lago in Florida appears to contradict his budget proposal.

Each of his trips was estimated to cost $3 million. He could have funded the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness for four years, which is budgeted at $4 million in 2016, if he had not gone vacationing so frequently.

In comparison, a December 2016 Government Accountability Office report reviewed by Judicial Watch found that Obama took a similar four-day trip to Florida in 2013 and his trip cost was $3.6 million.

During his two terms of presidency, Obama spent nearly $97 million on travel, according to documents reviewed by Judicial Watch. The travel costs included both official and family trips.

According to the Judicial Watch review, the documents contain information regarding one of Obama’s political fund raising trips to San Diego, Earth Day trip to the Florida Everglades, the first lady’s trip to Morocco, her annual Aspen ski trip, a family vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, as well as Hillary Clinton’s ride with Obama on Air Force One to North Carolina.

There have been many controversies and comparisons of Trump and his predecessor’s travel plans in these few months but these are not the only two presidents who have spent enormous amounts on travel. Even though the exact amount of the travel expenditure of a president is not made public, we can obviously have an idea of the actual figure if we consider foreign trips and the flying costs.

The last time the president’s travel expenditure was scrutinized was back in 1999 when President Clinton’s 1998 visit to Africa, Chile, and China was brought under the scope by the Government Accountability Office and a follow up to the report was undertaken in 2000, analyzing the air lift costs. Each of the Presidential trips need an all inclusive security setup – security personnel take advance trips to the destination, logistics, supplies flown in by multiple cargo carriers and flying in cabinet members, staff and even the preferred chef.

The easily ascertainable costs are the operational costs of the Air Force One. The costs per flight hour for AF1 have dipped to $140,000, according to Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch. In 2013, the AF1 cost $288,288 per flight hour which came down to $206,337 in 2015.

The Air Force reported $180,118 as the cost per flight hour for the AF1 in FY 2016. The report came in response to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Judicial Watch.

Obama took 52 trips abroad: two less than President Bill Clinton’s total but four more than President George W. Bush. Ronald Reagan, another illustrious name in the country’s list of presidents, took 25 trips throughout his presidency. But what stood out in his term was how the presidential travels changed. The Boeing 707 was replaced by Boeing VC-25 after he had commissioned them for two special missions. The Air Force One now had in-flight bedrooms, showers and boardrooms.

Even though we cannot know the exact amount the presidents spend on their travels we know that their travel budgets could fund many low cost schemes that have been scrapped in recent years. But many, who are in support of the travel budget assigned, argue that the expenditure is necessary to an extent pertaining to the power the post comes with and the security needed to protect the president of the United States of America.