#OyVey DonaldTrump turns down the $400,000 Pa Prez of the USA salary but tallying up the cost to taxpayers of handling the Trump family is nightmarish

Since 2001, the president has earned a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001.

 Gaudy family portrait of Donald, Melania, and Barron Trump.

One thing that President Trump brings to our country is an extraordinary sense of entitlement. A wealthy tax cheat, Trump, like most of our nation’s wealthy, doesn’t believe that he should have to pay for anything. In fact, you and I should pay for their “expertise” in creating wealth. The Trump family “business,” besides being a conflict of interest factory, is also a logistical nightmare of government spending. Who pays for renting space in Trump Tower? Trump’s wife Melania doesn’t want to uproot her and her son’s lives in New York. Some estimates put that security cost at around $1.25 million a day. That’s roughly half a billion dollars per Trump term. This is just one of the less normal aspects of Trump’s presidency.

Trump’s three Mar-a-Lago trips since the inauguration have probably cost the federal treasury about $12.66 million, based on figures used in an October government report analyzing White House travel, including money for Coast Guard units to patrol the exposed shoreline and other military, security and staffing expenses associated with moving the apparatus of the presidency
And as Tom Fitton, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, points out to the Washington Post—Trump knows that he’s costing money.

“The unique thing about President Trump is that he knows what it costs to run a plane,” Fitton added, noting that Trump should consider using the presidential retreat of Camp David, a short helicopter ride from the White House, or even his golf course in Northern Virginia. Of Mar-a-Lago, Fitton said, “Going down there ain’t free.”

Remember, Trump’s son Eric cost taxpayers around $100,000 for just two days spent on a private business trip. Let’s put President Barack Obama against Donald Trump’s first few weeks in office.

Presidential families have for decades been guaranteed round-the-clock protection, no matter the expense or destination. Every presidency has brought new operational challenges and lifestyle habits, from George W. Bush’s frequent stays at his remote ranch in Texas to Obama’s annual trips to Martha’s Vineyard and his native state of Hawaii. Judicial Watch estimated that Obama-related travel expenses totaled nearly $97 million over eight years.

The thing about wealthy “elites” like Trump is that they believe one must “spend money to make money,” but the dirty secret is that they really only spend other people’s money to make themselves money.