President Donald Trump and Elon Musk in February said they had already saved taxpayers $55.6 billion. According to NPR, the amount was closer to $6.5 billion.
“Taxpayers” paid more than $26 million for Trump’s golf outings this year; he has traveled to his own golf resorts, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Trump National Doral Golf Club near Miami, on nine of the 10 weekends since taking office. So he even makes money on these trips because he owns the resorts.
There are also costs for local and state governments, including police boats with machine guns, Coast Guard vessels stationed off the beach, law enforcement and canines for sniffing out explosives, plus the expense of housing the Secret Service on these weekend trips.
I was always under the impression that presidents are not to make money from their personal business off the government when they are in office. Also, they are not to be in control of these businesses while in office.
This is not saving money for taxpayers. I feel it is just making Trump richer and wasting money. When President Barack Obama was in office, Trump posted this on Twitter: “I say we cannot continue to let Obama fly around on Air Force 1, at a cost of millions of dollars a day, for the purpose of politics & play.”
I say he needs to heed his own words.
Nancy R. Chulack
Harrison