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Is Trump at Mar-a-Lago? New Website Says Yes or No, and How Those Tax Dollars Could Be Spent Better.

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What Are the Real-World Costs of Trump’s Travels?

Is Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago? That’s the question Americans increasing want answered. Never in modern American history has a president taken so many weekends off, at such a tremendous cost to taxpayers. 

Even before he was a candidate, Donald Trump took every opportunity he could to attack President Barack Obama for playing golf. Trump reveled is pummeling Obama for his once-a-year Christmas vacation family trips to Hawaii, Obama’s birthplace. And as a candidate, the attacks only grew worse, with Trump insisting if he were elected he would never leave the White House.

But all that aside – Americans are used to Trump’s lies and broken promises – the costs are adding up, and fast. Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago, his private $200,000 a year members-only club and golf course, have already cost U.S. taxpayers what President Obama spent in two years on personal travel. 

A new website from the Center for American Progress Action Fund answers that burning question, Is Trump at Mar-a-Lago?, tells you what his trips have cost taxpayers, and tells you what those tax dollars could cover.

For example, yes, since yesterday evening, President Trump has been at Mar-a-Lago. So far, Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago have cost taxpayers $25 million. What could that cover?

Education for 2000 students for a year

9000 Meals on Wheels recipients

6 years of aid for the homeless

7000 Pell education grants for a year

And more.

It’s important to note that sure, presidents are people too, and deserve some time off. But no president in modern time has taken off as much time as this president, never so early in their term, and never at such great cost to the taxpayers. 

And it’s not just the tax dollars Trump is spending. His administration is historically behind in hiring. He is about to complete his first 100 days with little accomplished. And he is increasingly putting Americans and the U.S. military at risk. 

As NCRM has reported and in an NCRM Editorial Thursday, we noted since last Thursday President Trump has launched 59 Tomahawk missiles into Syria. On Thursday U.S. military forces dropped the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used onto an ISIS stronghold in Afghanistan. Over the past week North Korea, Secretary of State Tillerson, and President Trump have been playing an increasingly dangerous game of nuclear chicken.

Right now, the U.S. military is reportedly prepared to launch a preemptive military strike of Tomahawk missiles into North Korea if Pyongyang continues with its planned nuclear weapons test, slated for some time between now and the end of this weekend.

And President Trump, in his infinite wisdom, is at his golf course this weekend – with no senior staff accompanying him. So if there is any military action this weekend, which has already been threatened by both the U.S. And North Korea, Trump will be without his top advisors and away from the situation room.

Trump’s travels to Mar-a-Lago have real world costs. 

Is Trump at Mar-a-Lago?

Yes.

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

Photo by 内閣官房内閣広報室 via Wikimedia and a Creative Commons 4.0 international license

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Trump ‘Laser-Focused’ on Affordability Says White House After Calling It a ‘Hoax’

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The White House says President Donald Trump has been “laser-focused on making America affordable” since taking office. Just one month ago, President Trump called affordability a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats.

President Trump has recently attempted to preserve his sweeping tariffs amid Supreme Court review, has engaged in foreign policy messaging involving Venezuela, Iran, and Greenland — including promoting himself as the “acting President of Venezuela” — and has responded sharply to protests involving federal officers.

The president campaigned on lowering the cost of living on “day one,” but nearly 51 weeks into his second term, inflation remains high.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that the president would travel to Detroit on Tuesday to deliver a speech about “all of the positive economic news that we continue to see as a result of his agenda.”

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“So tomorrow, he looks forward to traveling to the great state of Michigan, a state he won big, to not only tour a factory that produces Ford F-150s, and is going to be hiring more, and producing more trucks right here in the USA because of President Trump’s effective tariff policies,” Leavitt said.

Trump narrowly won Michigan, taking less than half of the vote and besting Vice President Kamala Harris by 1.4 percentage points.

Leavitt said that “mortgage rates that are falling under 6% for the first time in years,” “the national average of gasoline is the lowest that it’s been in five years,” and core inflation is “at its lowest level in five years.”

She suggested that “with a little bit of patience, the American people are going to continue to see that the best is yet to come,” and claimed that Trump “has a proven economic formula that works.”

Leavitt also said that Trump has a housing plan “in the works” and a healthcare plan “in the works,” and vowed that Americans will “continue to hear from the president, and he’ll continue to hit the road across the country to speak directly with the people he loves most, the American people.”

READ MORE: Trump ‘Losing Political Fight’ to Fed Chair: Analyst

 

Image via Reuters

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Trump DOJ Fires Attorney Who Refused to Prosecute James Comey

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The Trump Department of Justice has terminated a 64-year old attorney, the number-two official in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, after he refused to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey in a highly-controversial case.

MS NOW on Monday reported that Robert McBride, a senior DOJ prosecutor and former Navy lawyer, “was brought into the prominent satellite office of the Justice Department to serve as first assistant to U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan and took a more prominent role as her status was in question and after a judge ruled in late November that she was not legally appointed to run the office.”

McBride reportedly had held private meetings with judges, MS NOW reported, calling it a move that was “viewed as undermining the Administration.”

He had declined to prosecute Comey, sources said, reportedly telling top Justice Department officials that it would be difficult to do that and also run the office.

MS NOW’s Carol Leonnig added that McBride was also suspected of “gunning for” the top job.

The New York Times reported that there was a “disagreement about whether he would take charge of the Trump administration’s effort to re-indict James B. Comey,” and called McBride’s firing “the latest development in the fallout in the Justice Department over President Trump’s effort to punish Mr. Comey, the former F.B.I. director and his longtime nemesis, whom the president blames for past investigations of his conduct.”

The Times added that meeting with judges is considered “commonplace.”

 

Image via Reuters 

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‘Screwed’: Trump Warns Supreme Court on Tariffs

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With many Americans awaiting a Supreme Court decision on the sweeping Trump tariffs and some experts believing the Court will rule on them any day nowpossibly as soon as Wednesday — the president is once again sending a clear warning to the justices: allow the tariffs or America is “screwed.”

During the November oral arguments, liberal and conservative justices appeared skeptical of the administration’s claim it has the power to impose global tariffs by declaring a national emergency.

President Trump has repeatedly said the tariffs are necessary for national security, and said that if the court does not allow them the U.S. would be in no position to give refunds of billions of dollars. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent late last week said refunds “won’t be a problem.”

Trump on Monday appeared to disagree.

READ MORE: ‘Organized Gangs of Wine Moms’ Are Impeding Federal Agents Says Fox Columnist

“The actual numbers that we would have to pay back if, for any reason, the Supreme Court were to rule against the United States of America on Tariffs, would be many Hundreds of Billions of Dollars,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday afternoon. It is possible the Court could rescind the Trump tariffs and not require refunds.

The president then added that “the amount of ‘payback’ that Countries and Companies would require for the Investments they are making on building Plants, Factories, and Equipment, for the purpose of being able to avoid the payment of Tariffs. When these Investments are added, we are talking about Trillions of Dollars!”

He claimed any negative ruling would create “a complete mess,” and make it “almost impossible for our Country to pay.”

Despite his Treasury Secretary’s remarks, Trump added, “Anybody who says that it can be quickly and easily done would be making a false, inaccurate, or totally misunderstood answer to this very large and complex question.”

“It may not be possible but, if it were, it would be Dollars that would be so large that it would take many years to figure out what number we are talking about and even, who, when, and where, to pay,” he claimed.

And he warned point-blank, “if the Supreme Court rules against the United States of America on this National Security bonanza, WE’RE SCREWED!”

READ MORE: Trump ‘Losing Political Fight’ to Fed Chair: Analyst

 

Image via Reuters

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