Melania Trump took 21 flights, racked up a bill of $675,000 while living in New York after the inauguration
In a three-month period between the inauguration and April 2017, Melania Trump racked up a bill of more than $675,000 in Air Force flights, The Wall Street Journal has learned. The high frequency of flights — 21 in total — stems from an arrangement that kept the first lady in New York City while her son, Barron Trump, finished the fifth grade. "While the first lady was living in Trump Tower in Manhattan, Air Force jets made at least 19 trips to LaGuardia Airport in New York and nine trips to Florida's Palm Beach International Airport to drop off or pick up Mrs. Trump," The Wall Street Journal writes. In total, 27 flights were made without passengers in order to accommodate the first lady.
There is no indication that any of Melania Trump's flights were improper, although the reports come as many members of President Trump's Cabinet have been scrutinized over their travel on taxpayer dollars, including former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who resigned after racking up $500,000 in charter flights. The Treasury Department inspector general found that Secretary Steven Mnuchin's seven flights on military planes were all legally approved but suggested that the $811,798 cost to taxpayers was poorly justified. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's travels also flagged attention after he chartered an oil executive's private plane, costing taxpayers more than $12,000.
President Trump often criticized first lady Michelle Obama for her travel, which amounted to more than $2.8 million in eight years, or "an average of about $350,000 a year — less than half what Mrs. Trump accrued in the three-month period before she moved to Washington," The Wall Street Journal writes.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The Week Unwrapped: What’s the cost of PFAs?Podcast Plus why is George Osborne joining OpenAI? And has universal basic income finally come of age?
-
The week’s best photosIn Pictures A dervish dance off, a frosty forest, and more
-
Mount Rainier is on its way downUnder the radar Its peak elevation is approximately 20 feet lower than it once was
-
Jack Smith tells House of ‘proof’ of Trump’s crimesSpeed Read President Donald Trump ‘engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,’ hoarded classified documents and ‘repeatedly tried to obstruct justice’
-
House GOP revolt forces vote on ACA subsidiesSpeed Read The new health care bill would lower some costs but not extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies
-
Hegseth rejects release of full boat strike footageSpeed Read There are calls to release video of the military killing two survivors of a Sept. 2 missile strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat
-
Trump vows naval blockade of most Venezuelan oilSpeed Read The announcement further escalates pressure on President Nicolás Maduro
-
Kushner drops Trump hotel project in SerbiaSpeed Read Affinity Partners pulled out of a deal to finance a Trump-branded development in Belgrade
-
Senate votes down ACA subsidies, GOP alternativeSpeed Read The Senate rejected the extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, guaranteeing a steep rise in health care costs for millions of Americans
-
Abrego García freed from jail on judge’s orderSpeed Read The wrongfully deported man has been released from an ICE detention center
-
Indiana Senate rejects Trump’s gerrymander pushSpeed Read The proposed gerrymander would have likely flipped the state’s two Democratic-held US House seats
