Yo Musk, here's some actual waste your DOGE dorks could cut
Co-President Elon Musk and his unqualified minions at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency have been causing chaos with their efforts to slash the federal budget and eliminate thousands of federal employees so that purported President Donald Trump can find the funds to give tax cuts to his rich friends.
Oddly, DOGE hasn’t tried to cut the wasteful trips Trump himself has taken during his first month in office that have cost taxpayers millions of dollars, according to estimates crafted by Daily Kos.
Since he took office, Trump has traveled to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida three separate times—the weekend of Jan. 31, the weekend of Feb. 7, and the weekend of Feb. 14—to golf and be showered with fawning adoration from the cultists who shell out stupid sums of money to join his gaudy club. In fact, he spent this Tuesday morning golfing instead of working, even while ordering federal employees to head back to the office—often without enough work space for them to actually do their jobs.
A Government Accountability Office report from 2019 said that four Trump trips to Mar-a-Lago totaled $13.6 million for the travel and security costs. If you do the math, that means Trump’s three trips to Mar a Lago in the first month of his second term tallied up to at least $10.2 million.
Trump has taken two other superfluous trips, including attending the Super Bowl and going to a NASCAR race on Sunday—neither of which did anything to help the American people, but did a whole lot to stroke Trump’s very large ego.
According to calculations by the fact-checking outlet Snopes, Trump's Super Bowl trip cost taxpayers at least $1 million just for the air travel and regular Secret Service detail that travels with the president. But the trip likely cost much more than that, given the need for extra law enforcement officers and security measures to ensure Trump's safety for the event, which he left before the game was over.
Trump’s trip to the NASCAR event was even more ridiculous.
He flew less than 200 miles from Mar-a-Lago to Daytona, where he took a joy ride around the race track in the presidential limousine while babbling on the radio to the race car drivers.
“This is your favorite president. I’m a big fan. I am a really big fan of you people,” Trump said.
The field trip to the Daytona 500 event—where he stayed for roughly 90 minutes—likely cost taxpayers at least $373,000, according to Daily Kos calculations.
That's based on the fact that it costs $177,843 per hour to operate Air Force One, according to information the outlet the War Zone obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request in 2022. White House pool reports said the flight times between Daytona and Mar-a-Lago were roughly an hour each, plus the daily cost of $17,520 for the Secret Service detail, per Snopes, and you land at the $373,000 figure.
In all, Trump's travel during his first month in office cost taxpayers at least $11.4 million.
Limiting Trump's ridiculous trips would be a great cost savings, don’t you think? We'll be sure to @ Elon Musk on X to let him know.