Trump’s travel expenses on pace to cost half a billion dollars by end of term

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Trump’s hypocrisy highlights how he won’t hold himself to account on any issue

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Before Donald Trump won the presidency in November, and before he began campaigning for the Republican nomination, he was a frequent critic of President Barack Obama. Time and time again, he’d take to Twitter to vent his frustrations with Obama, who Trump doubted was even an American citizen.

While Trump was proven wrong — several times over — his “birtherism” wasn’t the only thing that he attacked Obama on. He also attacked the president on his vacation time.

Obama actually took less vacation time than his predecessor George W. Bush. But that didn’t matter to Trump, who unleashed a barrage of critiques against the president for taking time off with his family and going golfing.

Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2014

President Obama played golf yesterday???

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2013

Trump campaigned on the promise of never being a president that would “be very big on vacations.” Of course, when Trump became president, all of that changed. Presidential vacations are so commonplace that there’s hardly a weekend where Trump isn’t taking one.

Trump’s presidential respites have been so common, in fact, that in his first ten weeks of the presidency his travel costs have already exceeded the first two years of Obama’s costs.

In eight years of President Obama’s tenure, the former commander-in-chief’s travel costs amounted to around $12 million on average yearly. So his two-year average comes to around $24 million.

President Trump managed to reach $24 million in travel costs to taxpayers in his first ten weeks since being inaugurated in January.

Trump is on pace to cost the American taxpayer nearly half a billion dollars in travel costs, if he indeed serves out his four years in office.

Does either the hypocrisy or the costs to taxpayers bother the president? “No, he feels great,” says White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

Presidents are, of course, charged with one of the most important and stress-inducing jobs in the world. Taking time off to unwind, to regroup their thoughts and to make sure they’re rested is important.

The problem with Trump, though, is that he frequently criticized the former president for taking time off — and now he himself is taking much MORE time off. The hypocrisy is blatantly clear to see, and it should trouble anyone who thinks this president is going to hold himself to account on this or any other issue.

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