After eight years of downplaying Obama’s extravagant travel, the dishonest media is ALREADY complaining about what Trump is costing taxpayers
02/19/2017 / By JD Heyes
In a tweet following President Donald J. Trump’s rambunctious press conference Thursday, NBC News’ Chuck Todd tweeted out a message that explains everything that is wrong with today’s establishment media.
“This is not a laughing matter. I’m sorry, delegitimizing the press is unAmerican,” Todd wrote, as reported by The National Sentinel.
The tone deafness of that single tweet sums up the incredible disconnect between the establishment media and the American people they are supposed to be informing – fairly and accurately, without bias and without malice toward a particular political party or ideology.
But the ‘mainstream media’ hasn’t done that. In fact, as we saw over the eight years of the Obama administration, the Alt-Left sycophants posing as journalists in the establishment press did everything they could to appear as though they were accurately covering President Obama and his administration, without really focusing on the important stuff. (RELATED: Memo To The Angry Leftists At WaPo: You’ve Become America’s Newest Hate Group And Trump Isn’t Going Anywhere)
And then there were efforts to completely downplay any and all distractions, like when some in the conservative media would bring up the fact that the Obamas spent no small amount of taxpayer money to travel.
As in, there wasn’t much reporting from the Beltway media about Obama’s nearly $100 million billed to taxpayers for his regular vacations, many to exotic places like Hawaii. And this after Obama vowed as a candidate in 2008 to give up vacations altogether so he could focus on his job.
Well, that’s changed now, apparently. The Washington Post, in a sick attempt to feed red meat to its readers, published a piece on Friday decrying how much our evil president and his family – accustomed to their “elaborate lifestyle” – are costing the Treasury:
Barely a month into the Trump presidency, the unusually elaborate lifestyle of America’s new first family is straining the Secret Service and security officials, stirring financial and logistical concerns in several local communities, and costing far beyond what has been typical for past presidents — a price tag that, based on past assessments of presidential travel and security costs, could balloon into the hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of a four-year term.
Adding to the costs and complications is Trump’s inclination to conduct official business surrounded by crowds of people, such as his decision last weekend to host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a working dinner while Mar-a-Lago members dined nearby.
Oh, the gall and hypocrisy – which was not lost on White House spokesman Sean Spicer, who tweeted, “So glad the media’s bringing back their popular series, ‘The High Cost of Presidential Travel & Protection’. Missed it the last 8 years.”
As did we all. Because whenever Obama and his family wanted to travel, critics and alternative media who tracked the costs were supposed to shut up and accept the fact that, hey, even a president who, as a candidate, said he wouldn’t burden taxpayers with vacations, deserves to get away and take a break from it all.
And do you know what? That is exactly right. Presidents are human too and deserve an opportunity to sort of ‘get away from it all’ with their families once in a while and be fully protected when doing so.
That said, if it was okay for Obama to do it, then it’s okay for Trump to do it as well. There is no difference, despite the Post’s weak attempt to make distinctions. This “story” reeks of petulance and peevishness; it’s not serious. It’s not even informative because there are few figures included, beyond those publicly available like local NYPD costs. (RELATED: Obama Administration Unleashed Thousands Of New Regulations Before Thanksgiving)
Then, of course, there is the snark: Americans are paying for the Trump family’s “extravagant” lifestyle. This is patently absurd; how the Trumps live – which, by the way, they deserve because they earned it – is immaterial to the fact that they, like the Obamas and all of the Bush family when GW was in office – are entitled to Secret Service, military and law enforcement protection. And by the way, it was Obama who signed legislation in 2012 giving ex-presidents Secret Service protection for life.
Will Trump’s travel wind up costing more than any previous president? We don’t know yet because he’s been in office less than a month, and several things could happen, such as government or even Trump Inc. reimbursement for expenses, Trump reducing his overall travel over the months and years, and so forth.
For the Post to whip this story out so soon smacks of child-like hypocrisy.
J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.
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Tagged Under:
President Donald Trump, Secret Service, travel costs, Washington Post
This article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author
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