“Let them eat cake!” is erroneously attributed to Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution, when she was told that starving peasants had no bread. But it has become a phrase used to suggest the arrogance of well-off powerful figures who are out of touch with common folk.
President Trump’s preference for his own properties (hotels, golf courses, resorts) over the White House, and related costs for the trips he takes to them with aides and Secret Service, provides a modern example of such “royal” indifference.
At the end of last October, NBC News provided these statistics: of Trump’s 1,091 days in office, he had spent 329 of them at Trump properties, of which 245 were golf courses. The White House has not been forthcoming about the expenses of such trips, but the GAO did report that four trips to Mar-a-Lago cost more than $13 million alone. Secretary Mnuchin doesn’t want Secret Service trip costs divulged until after the fall election (one wonders why), but it’s clear taxpayers have paid a couple hundred million for this travel so far.
It is not presidential travel that is problematic, it is Trump’s elective travel to his own properties that receive expense reimbursements. The Trump Organization is being paid for these stays, around $500/night/person at Mar-a-Lago; directly or indirectly, Trump is making money on this. These trips are not necessary for government purposes. Taxpayers have given the president a paid-for home in the White House, and any cost-conscious leader would accept that residence, knowing that money had better uses.
To be constantly seeking luxury residences (beyond what the White House offers), when 500,000 homeless Americans are sleeping on our streets each night, is symbolically and practically an affront to the “bread-winners”/taxpayers of this country – and a flagrant abuse of the trust given him by common citizens.
John Delaney
Port Townsend
