Trump's Weekend Vacay Could Cost Taxpayers Millions

With Pres. Donald Trump now considering it his second home, Mar-a-Lago is going to be in the news a lot going forward.

We recently heard stories about how the club increased its rates after Trump won the presidency. Now, there's another story about Mar-a-Lago that's likely to upset taxpayers.

Trump plans to spend this weekend at his swanky club and hotel, and it's likely he'll be spending a lot more time there considering that he's calling it the winter White House.

But Trump's lavish vacation isn't going to be cheap - and a lot of the price for it will be the taxpayers' responsibility.

According to Politico, Donald Trump's weekend in Mar-a-Lago is likely to cost taxpayers $3 million or more, because of the amount of security and staff that will be necessary.

Taxpayers have to foot the bill for all of the additional government employees who will be traveling with him, as well as the $200,000 per hour use of Air Force One.

For personal travel, presidents are required to reimburse the government, but generally the reimbursement requirement is only a very small fraction of the cost of the trip.

Mar-a-Lago has become pretty controversial because of the appearance that people are using it in order to curry favor and get access to the new president.

That controversy increased when Mar-a-Lago decided to double its membership rates to approximately $200,000, according to The Squander.

The hotel itself can cost several thousand dollars per night, and other parts of the experience, such as food and spa services add even more to the price.

This is not surprising, as The Squander notes, since the Mar-a-Lago is valued at around $200 million, and only has a little over 100 rooms.

Taxpayers do not have to pay for the presidents accommodations at Mar-a-Lago. They also don't have to pay for food and other incidental expenses. However, most other expenses are the responsibility of the taxpayer.

Given that Donald Trump often tweeted complaints about how former Pres. Barack Obama used to go on vacations that cost the taxpayers money, it's surprising that so early in his presidency, Trump is already taking vacation on the taxpayers' dime.

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