Trump slammed Obama for using Air Force One for election campaigning — now he does the same
WASHINGTON – Before they saw President Donald Trump, the thousands of supporters who attended his rally earlier this month in Pennsylvania first saw a symbol of the presidency: the iconic blue-and-white jet instantly recognizable as Air Force One.
"It's up to the White House to determine if the trip has a political purpose," said Brendan Doherty, a political scientist at the U.S. Naval Academy and an expert on presidential travel and fundraising."We usually don't get a full picture of what that cost is." .
"If you like high taxes and you like crime, you can vote for him," Trump said as he flew to New York for fundraisers. Even for a purely political trip, a presidential campaign doesn’t reimburse the government for the cost of operating Air Force One, which the Pentagon pegs at $165,000 per hour. Instead, Federal Election Commission rules require campaigns to reimburse the government for the estimated cost of a charter flight.The cost of flying the plane itself is a mystery.
Asked by USA TODAY to reveal how much the campaign reimbursed the government for travel expenses incurred during a single rally to Missoula, Montana, last fall, a Trump campaign official said they would need to look into it. The president then flew to Houston, where he delivered"official" remarks to the International Union of Operating Engineers. He signed two executive orders intended to give the White House more control over pipelines and to speed environmental reviews.
For last year's midterm, by contrast, the Trump campaign sent the U.S. Treasury $211,000 for flights and other travel expenses. Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, asserted that the administration funds the official portion of trips and that the “appropriate political committee funds their portion of the president’s political travel.” That, essentially, is a restatement of FEC regulations.
Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? She is flying with him tomorrow. Who pays?
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