Conservatives were wrong to complain about the taxpayer costs of President Barack Obama’s vacations. Likewise, liberals are wrong to complain about President Trump’s golfing costs.
HuffPost is out with a hyperventilating report that Trump’s golf trips have cost taxpayers $102 million. The report says Trump’s costs are an egregious affront to taxpayers. But here’s the problem: Trump’s travel costs are not a function of his profligacy, but rather of his position. The same principle applied to the Obama administration’s travels (which liberal media outlets surprisingly had few complaints about).
Although, to be fair to HuffPost, conservatives cannot claim any special respectability on this issue: Too many conservative commentators unjustly attacked Obama’s travel costs.
Regardless, as president, Trump must necessarily travel with a large entourage of White House staffers, military support personnel, Secret Service agents and officers, aides, journalists, and vehicles.
This isn’t simply so that Trump and his family can be protected from threats. It is so that the president can command the federal government during an unexpected crisis. What if a president was in a vulnerable position and Russia or China decided to launch a nuclear war? Absent the environment of survivable command, Russia might decapitate the U.S. government and avoid a U.S. counterstrike. It might seem peripheral, but the vast envelope of power that travels with a U.S. president is a crucial ingredient in U.S. deterrence. It is also worth noting here that the vice president and speaker of the House (third in the presidential succession order) do not travel with anywhere near the same logistical and command capabilities as the president.
Presidential vehicle-related costs are also instructive here. When you’re flying at least two planes, five helicopters, and perhaps two dozen armored vehicles around the world, the fuel costs add up quickly. But the president has the right to vacation, no matter what political party they’re in. Considering the stresses of his office, we should wish for a president to be as relaxed as possible. In that contemplation, we should defer to the president’s preference of vacation location, regardless of distance or costs applied.
In short, presidential travel costs should, to anyone who wants the president to succeed, be an absolute nonstory.
