What’s More Expensive: Mueller’s Russia Probe or Trump’s Trips to Mar-a-Lago?
It has become a trusted line of attack against the Mueller probe from President Donald Trump and his media defenders: the investigation is taking far too long, and costing far too much.
Trump sent out a tweet on Friday noting the cost of the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia is now at $17 million, “and going up fast.” In another one Saturday morning, Trump again slammed the investigation’s $17 million price tag.
Defenders of the Mueller probe often point out that one year is hardly a long time for a federal investigation of this nature, and that the Whitewater investigation ambled on for six years — before finding insufficient evidence to charge former President Bill Clinton.
But what about the cost of the Mueller probe? Are the American people getting royally screwed by the exorbitant costs of what Trump has dubbed a witch hunt?
Well according to a Washington Post analysis, the entire probe has cost taxpayers far less than Trump’s many trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, or what he calls Winter White House.
The report estimates that Trump’s 17 trips to Mar-a-Lago have cost at least $17 million, based on conservative watchdog Judicial Watch’s estimates that each trip costs $1 million in Air Force One travel and Secret Service protection alone.
WaPo’s Phillip Bump adds to that price tag:
In July of last year, The Washington Post determined that the Coast Guard had spent about $6.6 million on guarding the beachfront-adjacent property over the course of Trump’s first five visits there. If the other visits were similarly expensive, the overall price tag essentially doubles.
These are all estimates, because the White House is reportedly stonewalling efforts by the Government Accountability Office to obtain hard figures on the president’s expenditures. Either way, they demonstrate that the president’s jaunts down to his Florida resort to play golf are costing taxpayers far more than the investigation into whether Russia collaborated with a campaign to try and subvert a U.S. election.
Bump also puts the cost of the Mueller probe in some perspective with regards to U.S. government spending:
In the grand scheme of government spending, $16.7 million is … not a lot. The federal government is expected to spend about $4.1 trillion in fiscal 2018. To put it into more tangible terms, spending $16.7 million of $4.1 trillion is like making $50,000 a year and spending 20 cents.
Read the report here.
[image via screengrab]
