The former president and first lady's plane were escorted by six Eurofighter Fourth Wing jets as it landed at Grosseto Air Base
Posted on 05/20/2017 12:04:28 PM PDT by jazusamo
Obama Final Travel Tally: Nearly $100 Million
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There may be no better way to keep on eye on our leaders’ penchant for pretending to royalty than to tally the cost of their travel and accommodations. Our nation has granted its presidents exquisite transport because we need for our leaders to be efficient and safe. However, we don’t need for them to luxuriate on our tax dollars.
As you know, we have carefully tracked the travel costs President Obama incurred, and we have an update on that this week. We have obtained records from the Secret Service and the Air Force in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that show Obama family travel cost taxpayers a grand total of $99,714,527.82.
The newly obtained Obama White House era travel records show:
We have also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for Secret Service records associated with President Obama’s movements, schedule and activities since his departure from the White House. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (No. 1:17-cv-00928)).
The suit was filed after the Secret Service failed to respond to a March 24, 2017, FOIA request seeking:
All records of former President Barack Obama’s movements, schedule, activities, and/or meeting for January 21, 2017 through March 21, 2017. Such records include, but are not limited to, U.S. Secret Service schedules and activity reports.
Although Obama is no longer in office, he continues to receive Secret Service protection at taxpayer expense. In January, the Obama family traveled to Palm Springs, CA . The former president also spent a few weeks in French Polynesia. And all the while, taxpayers paid the protection tab.
For eight long years, the Obamas spent our tax dollars for a lavish jet-setting lifestyle. Many in the media only focus on President Trump’s travel, but Barack Obama continues to cost taxpayers with his luxury travel, and we aim to document it.
Of course, we are also actively tracking the travel expenses of President Trump. On May 4, we released records from the Department of the Air Force in response to FOIA requests that show President Trump’s flights to Mar-a-Lago for two weekends (in February and March) cost $1,281,420.00. And, as I told the Washington Post, since he is spending taxpayer dollars, Trump may want to consider using the presidential retreat of Camp David, a short helicopter ride from the White House, for his weekend getaways.
A plethora of slippery “facts” are being bundled into reportedly serious allegations against President Donald Trump here in Washington. To cut through this miasma of fake news, we are doing what we do best: using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to get to the truth.
As an example, we have filed a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice for records of communications and payments between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and his private firm Orbis Business Intelligence. And that includes “actual payments of any funds to Mr. Steele.” ( Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:17-cv-00916)).
This is the fifth Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit related to the surveillance, unmasking, and illegal leaking targeting President Trump and his associates (see here , here , here , here ).
The suit was filed after the Department of Justice failed to respond to a March 8, 2017, FOIA request seeking:
The Trump dossier was purported to contain “embarrassing material” which could be used to blackmail Trump. The online tabloid BuzzFeed published the 35-page document following a January 10, 2017, report by CNN stating President Obama was presented classified documents alleging Russian Intelligence had “compromising personal and financial information” about Trump.
CNN and many other news organizations refused to publish the dossier because they had not “independently corroborated the specific allegations,” and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper reportedly said “we couldn’t corroborate the sourcing, particularly the second and third order sources.” Yet, according to Fox News , former FBI Director James Comey insisted that the dossier be included in January’s intelligence report on alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. election.
This so-called Trump dossier is at the center of the anti-Trump Russian collusion conspiracy theory. It is disconcerting that the Obama FBI and Justice Departments trafficked this document and evidently used it to justify unprecedented surveillance of the Trump team. Our new lawsuit seeks to expose the truth about this dossier – including whether the FBI actually paid for the salacious material. Maybe with new leadership at the FBI, we’ll finally get some answers.
Our course, I know better than to hold my breath.
Obama just had a 6 fighter plane escort to his latest vacation spot.Who picked up the tab on that?
Off the Wall Ping!
Contact to be added.
I’d bet the farm it wasn’t him.
OMG! Seriously? Why did he need that?
I don’t get why this $100,000,000 figure is still bandied about. The Mooch and her entourage’s ‘Excellent African Adventure’ alone cost taxpayers 300 million dollars.
A hundred million MIGHT cover just the cost of fuel for AF-1. Altogether the cost of 0bama vacations and ‘trips of State’ is likely about a billion.
Yep.
The only ones I remember pretending to be royalty are the Obamas. The Clintons were corrupt, but I don't remember them taking many extravagant vacations (although there was one with Chelsea ? I think?
In any case, they weren't as blatant about it as the Obamas.
On the other hand, President Trump is a workhorse who never stops.
Thank God the people elected him.
And I am so tired of hearing about the "popular vote."
The Founders were brilliant. They made sure the smaller, less populated states had a say.
Were it not for the Electoral College, CA (the liberal cities, not the good people who provide much of the food we eat); NYC (again, lots of great people in the upstate areas, etc., not the "Sex and the City" crowd); IL (Chicago, not the corn farmers, etc.; I grew up in suburban Chicago), would perpetually determine who leads the country. And plenty of "undocumented", a.k.a. illegals, would as well.
♫ Still movin' on up; ♬
It’s sad that his constituents see nothing wrong with this. If O’bummer had spent $100K on a gold front tooth with a diamond in the middle his constituents would have applauded the “bling.” After all, they don’t pay taxes.
Amen! Very well said.
Obama is ghetto trash.
I always felt he was rewarding campaign contributors by including them on these trips. Which is an impeachable violation. On Obama’s first trip to the UK he brought along 5000 didn’t see tally on that. How was that accounted for ?
Guarantee he skimmed those millions off of taxpayers.
Great point. He’s getting paid 100s of thousands for speeches he can pay for his own GD security.
King Obama had a habit of flying off to political events/fundraisers and mini-vacations, and getting the taxpayers to pay for a majority of the expenses by creating a "business" reason for the trip (such as a meaningless speech or dedication).
The scam involved flying out to someplace like LA to give a 15 minute speech at some inner city skool, and then going off to a Hollyweird fundraiser and some golf. The party paid only for the expenses for the side trip to the fundraiser (if they paid anything at all), and the taxpayers picked up the tab for the DC to LA travel.
That's not to say that other presidents didn't do that, but King Obama doubtless set the gold standard for this type of abuse.
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