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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMelania Trump Racked Up $174,000 In Hotel Bills For a Day Trip To Toronto
First Lady Melania Trump ran up a six-figure hotel bill for a one-day trip to Toronto last year, according to federal spending records.
Government spending data show at least six separate Toronto hotel charges ranging from just under $12,000 to nearly $49,000 for a total of roughly $174,000. She did not spend the night.
The total was roughly eight times what it cost to house the first ladys advance team, whose $18,000 in hotel expenses were broken out separately; in addition to the hotel charges, the first ladys trip involved $21,000 in transportation costs.
Reports from the press pool that accompanied Trump on her September 23, 2017, Canadian excursion showed that her schedule involved multiple hotel stops. Based on those reports, this was her itinerary for the day:
Source: GovExec.com
More:
https://www.govexec.com/oversight/2018/11/melania-trump-racked-174000-hotel-bills-day-trip-toronto/152884/
ailsagirl
(22,907 posts)blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)rzemanfl
(29,581 posts)Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)I did not get anything at the link posted.
She didn't even spend the night! That's Marie Antoinette territory! Where is the accountability? I think we deserve an accounting of just what the Trump family has been spending during their tax-payer funded trips.
enid602
(8,670 posts)I was thinking Catherine the Great.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)into one of the great powers of Europe. Melania is useless.
enid602
(8,670 posts)I was thinking of Catherine with the horse and the piano wire.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Catherine the Great did have many lovers, but I think the other things were all made up.
TheCowsCameHome
(40,169 posts)I want to vomit and then throw something across the room.
First Lady, my ass............Bette nailed it.
rzemanfl
(29,581 posts)Demovictory9
(32,492 posts)FakeNoose
(32,884 posts)It's a pun based on "FLOTUS" meaning the First Lady of the United States, and you can guess the rest.
enid602
(8,670 posts)So I guess that makes her husband the Floater.
Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)How this is even possible.
She didnt spend the night?
What were these charges for?
KatyaR
(3,447 posts)And she probably had to have the highest-cost room in the hotels to do it.
Retrograde
(10,181 posts)raises a few more questions:
-why does she have to change clothes so often, and
-why can't she just have one base of operations and change all her outfits there?
Or why not just change in the car like I hear regular voters do?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Does everyone think she held a reception for the Invictus athletes and the prince in a hotel room?
pansypoo53219
(21,008 posts)Maven
(10,533 posts)Just like her husband. They're both disgusting.
mtnsnake
(22,236 posts)Ferrets are Cool
(21,116 posts)dlk
(11,600 posts)malaise
(269,278 posts)on steroids
mnmoderatedem
(3,734 posts)oh wait trump. Crickets as usual.
Cha
(298,017 posts)2 bit hustler for life.
How dare she show her "I don't care" face there.
Retrograde
(10,181 posts)and when you factor in the exchange rate - oh, that currently works in the US's favor. Obviously she needed them to cope with the time change - oh, wait, Toronto's the same time zone as DC and NYC.
A more charitable person's mind would be thinking of kickbacks; my mind is going more to padding the bills and overstating expenses.
Autumn
(45,120 posts)Johnny2X2X
(19,254 posts)Shes shopping at hotels. Taxpayers are buying her diamonds and designer dresses. She should go to jail for this but she wont.
Solly Mack
(90,800 posts)Demovictory9
(32,492 posts)JI7
(89,287 posts)dameatball
(7,405 posts)salin
(48,955 posts)salin
(48,955 posts)Tours of the most expensive hotel boutiques.
Maybe getting design ideas for a future jewelry line?
Stinky The Clown
(67,838 posts)Who does that??
Oh yeah.
That.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Someone attending/hosting multiple receptions with up to 100+ guests.
Just a guess.
Generic Brad
(14,276 posts)Because there is no way she would excessively overpay with the (wink wink) understanding that the hotel would keep some and give her back the majority through a kick back to a front organization. She wouldn't do that? Would she? Nah.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)At that sum, she must have been plastered at the end of the day. Being married to Donald, I suppose I can't blame her.
riversedge
(70,441 posts)...........Asked about the details of the expenses, the first ladys office referred specific questions to the State Department, which told us we would a need to file Freedom of Information Act requests for more information.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)I protest. If it ain't Melania pampering herself with our tax money, it's her republican spousal unit, Dirty Donny*, indulging in glorious, golden, fabulous golf goof-offs.
Hard-working American taxpayers deserve a huge refund from the "billionaire" republicans getting fat from the public treasury.
* aka republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief
Maeve
(42,309 posts)Have you seen the bigger piggies
In their starched white shirts
You will find the bigger piggies
Stirring up the dirt
Always have clean shirts to play around in.
In their styes with all their backing
They don't care what goes on around
In their eyes there's something lacking
What they need's a damn good whacking.
Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Living piggy lives
You can see them out for dinner
With their piggy wives
Clutching forks and knives to eat their bacon.
duforsure
(11,885 posts)When a first lady spends that for a luxury travel junket to go shopping with OUR money , and while they robbed the American people of their health care. There needs to be accountability , and everything she spent on should be made public, period. Add to that her expenses for her trip to Africa too. All while the deficit under trump has sky rocketed upward to record levels now. They should be made to reimburse what they spent .
Bigredhunk
(1,351 posts)Do ritzy hotels rent rooms by the hour?
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)to please their prissy palates, and to stuff their corpulent gullets at taxpayer expense. Next time I hear one of the republicans claiming to 'conservative' I'm going to blow good, old, patriotic American catfish chunks on his $1,500 Bruno Magli republican loafers.
MFGsunny
(2,356 posts)And paid for off our working backs .... grrrrr
Shameful. Period.
duforsure
(11,885 posts)She was scared she'd out her to the press, or did for her Africa trip costs?
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)I dont believe she ever entered the hotel.
kairos12
(12,896 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,201 posts)tonedevil
(3,022 posts)to be best.
Greybnk48
(10,182 posts)DFW
(54,502 posts)Several House of Representatives members have complained about the cost of living in the D.C area (it ain't cheap, I'll grant them that). I remember seeing a report or two about some of them complaining they can't live comfortably on $174,000 a year gross salary. OK, I want a statement from EVERY House Republican on how they justify the cost of a day trip to Toronto by Trump's wife being worth as much as they earn in a year. Any of them have an explanation?
I know, I might as well wait for the effects of gobal warming to be reversed in a weekend.
Vinca
(50,326 posts)They should be raked over the coals on this one. That's an obscene amount of money to spend on a one day trip.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)The article is written in an odd way to make it seem like these are all charges for accommodations instead of reception halls.
I doubt she met with the Invictus Games athletes and gave a speech in a hotel suite instead of a reception venue.
EleanorR
(2,397 posts)And given Toronto was hosting the games and we just sent a delegation, they may have popped for the venue.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)But neither the City of Toronto nor the non-profit team organizer is paying for a reception for the First Lady, her entourage, the press, 100 athletes, etc., if thats what popped is supposed to mean.
EleanorR
(2,397 posts)Still not adding up to 174 grand.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)If someone is holding a media event in a reception hall with 100+ guests, I doubt the charge is based on the period of time spend there by the host, since it renders the hall unavailable for anything else for the entire day.
Im not defending profligate spending, but the way the article is written - by reference to room rates instead of conference and reception facilities - is for simpleminded people.
Its a tiresome trope that is used regardless of the administration - e.g. the nattering on the right about the expense of the Obamas attending a broadway performance in New York during that administration.
Whenever any of these people goes anywhere, its like moving the Barnum & Bailey circus. But to pretend these were payments for bedrooms is just plain stupid.
EleanorR
(2,397 posts)She just stopped in to say a few words and then went to her next appointment.
Retrograde
(10,181 posts)only lists a couple of events:
12:09 pm (Sept. 23): Arrives in Toronto. The first lady travels to a downtown Sheraton, meets with Britains prince Harry for 20 minutes, and then departs for the Ritz-Carlton.
4 pm: Returns to Sheraton. The first lady meets with U.S. athletes competing in the Invictus Games (an event for disabled veterans created in 2014 by prince Harry) for 20 minutes. She delivers a speech that was one minute, 15 seconds long.
6:35 pm: Arrives at Air Canada Centre. The first lady greets prime minister Justin Trudeau and his family and watches the opening ceremony of the games from a VIP suite.
12:12 am (Sept. 24): Returns to Andrews Air Force base in Maryland.
The reception for the athlete could take place in a hotel ballroom or other function space, but why is the US paying for her to go to a foreign country to meet the grandson of the titular head of that country? Or to host the prime minister of that country? Shouldn't they be hosting her? And what was she doing at the Ritz-Carlton?
I've done a little bit of event planning, and venue costs can get up there if you don't have a halfway decent negotiator handling the details. The multiple hotels seems to me that she's found some new way of grifting, or her staff sucks at planning.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Canada wasnt paying for a reception for the 100+ US athletes, of which she was the leader of the delegation.
It would be more informative to get the details in the expense, but the omg X spent Y on Z trope is hardly a new one. Its a time-honored trope.
EleanorR
(2,397 posts)She just stopped by to speak briefly and take a few photos.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Asked about the details of the expenses, the first ladys office referred specific questions to the State Department
Do you know who runs the US consulate in Toronto?
Trump was the symbolic head of the delegation. The US State Department, to whom questions are about the expenses are referred, held a reception for the 100+ athletes in the delegation of which Trump, as the head thereof, appeared and gave a speech. Yes, the US consulate in Toronto is a facility of the US state department.
EleanorR
(2,397 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)You can review their financials here:
https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/10512082
Its pretty clear they werent paying for the reception on that budget.
Good reason for a complete investigation
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)I've been watching too many movies with mistakes in them.
unblock
(52,489 posts)It's from http://www.letthemeatcakenyc.com
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)Oh, I believe $174K was involved. But I think a big chunk of it went directly into somebody's pocket.
jrthin
(4,842 posts)2naSalit
(86,920 posts)NoMoreRepugs
(9,506 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)GreatCaesarsGhost
(8,585 posts)Farmer-Rick
(10,235 posts)into her g-string. She is living the ultimate sex worker's fantasy on our hard earned tax dollars.
Me.
(35,454 posts)and this. I think we need to see the itemized. These people are squandering the US Treasury. Don jr. goes to India for their business and it costs us 100K.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)our hard-earned tax dollars? That would be honest thing. But they are republicans, and never do the honest or decent thing.
Gothmog
(145,839 posts)tblue37
(65,528 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Not. She's a republican grifter, and feels 'special' - entitled to grift American taxpayers endlessly.
maxrandb
(15,386 posts)racked-up