Air Force officials are disputing a report that a crew went out of its way to stay at one of President Trump’s properties in Scotland earlier this year, calling the stop “not unusual.”
Since April, the House Oversight Committee has been investigating the joint Air Force and Alaska Air National Guard unit’s stop at Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland while on a trip to Kuwait. The visit raised ethics concerns about the government’s use of Trump’s properties.
However, an Air Force spokesperson claimed on Sunday that no hotel rooms closer to the Glasgow airport, which is roughly 50 miles away from Turnberry, were available for the crew’s one-night stay. According to the official, the Trump resort offered lower room rates than a nearby Marriott, although it appears the crew did stay at a Marriott near Glasgow on its return trip.
“As our air crews serve on these international airlift missions, they follow strict guidelines on contracting for hotel accommodations and all expenditures of taxpayer dollars,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Ed Thomas said in a statement. “In this case, they made reservations through the Defense Travel System and used the closest available and least expensive accommodations to the airfield within the crews’ allowable hotel rates.”
He added, “While we are still reviewing the trip records, we have found nothing that falls outside the guidelines associated with selecting stopover airports on travel routes and hotel accommodations for crew rest.”
The mission was aboard a C-17 that took off from Anchorage on March 13, making stops in Nevada and New Hampshire before Glasgow and then Kuwait. The crew included seven active-duty Air Force and Alaska Air National Guard members.
News of the House Oversight Committee’s investigation broke Friday, just after the committee opened another probe into Vice President Mike Pence’s recent stay at Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Doonbeg, Ireland, 182 miles away from meetings he was attending in Dublin.
