White House Travel Office charges each reporter $17.72 for lunch on trip

[dalton99a]

Link to tweet

[lpbk2713]

1. KFC and Diet Coke?

Specialty of the house.

[lapfog_1]

2. bag of chips and a ham sammy...

with a side of tiny mushrooms.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. $3.11 credit card fee????

Wow......

[Blue_true]

9. Actually, that is not that uncommon.

In my area, if I pay a utility bill with a debit card, the fee is around $4. The convenience makes it worth it.

[TheBlackAdder]

13. My Utility companies don't charge payment fees. It's cheaper to electronic pay than paper process.

.


The cost to manually pay and process a check is just under $2.

Companies like to label it a "convenience fee" because "secondary profit revenue stream" isn't quite appealing.



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[former9thward]

4. The tweet is very contradictory.

Its like he wants to complain but doesn't know what to complain about. He says he will pay his own way but two sentences later he doesn't want to. Does he think the lunch should be free and paid by the taxpayers? $17.72 is not some absurd price. What does he want? Does he know?

[Hortensis]

12. Lol. You missed it: they're charged by him to cover him.

These people aren't exactly poor, and they don't mind the bill. This's just offering yet another "inside-view" example of Trump's dysfunctional personality to roll eyes and chuckle over.

Like when they described in 2017 how he confined them to a utilitarian service-area room at luxurious Mar-a-Lago, with the windows pre-covered so they couldn't see out. Actually, now that I recall, they didn't find that all that humorous.

Can't imagine why.

I think it's a hoot.

[former9thward]

14. So the taxpayers should pay for his lunch?

Who should pay? If you didn't know, the White House travel office has always done this. They charge reporters for food and flights. They have done that forever. Would you like see that changed?

[salin]

17. No - they pay their way (or their companies do) - but b/c Trump owns the Gulf Course/resort

they are paying Trump. The issue is who receives the money, not how pays the money.

[former9thward]

18. So don't eat lunch there.

Problem solved. No one is forcing them to eat lunch.

[PA Democrat]

5. How convenient. Trump gets to golf and he also gets to make a profit

off of the reporters' lunches, apparently even if the reporter is not present to EAT the lunch.

[Cosmocat]

6. IF BHO's admin had reporters billed to a restaurant that he owned

republicans would have had him lined up on a wall and shot ...

[TheBlackAdder]

7. I have a problem with the air transportation costs.

.

A 747-400 operates around $39-$44 per mile, this is fuel, flight crew and service costs. The landing fees at both airports are a lot, and I don't know if AF1 gets discounted pricing.


The distance between Andrews ADW (JBA) and Newark (EWR) is around 195 miles, or 390 round trip. That would place the costs well below $9,000 for a round trip flight.


Now, they are charging one reporter $1,681 for a round trip flight.


10 reporters would pay for the entire RT flight's cost.

What The Fuck?

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[Sgent]

19. I don't know how they come up

with the numbers, but some accountant somewhere in the OMB has figured it out down to the penny. And if you think that AF1 (a 747-200) costs the same to operate as a commercial 744...

[TheBlackAdder]

20. Not 3-5 times as much, unless they factor in the F-16 escort. But, it's still exorbitant.

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You have an aircraft, and one passenger, at an average of 200lbs. Adding in equipment I can't see it more than 300 lbs per reporter, or the weight of just 45 gallons of jet fuel.

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[unc70]

8. $1681 for the flight on AF1

RT Joint Base Andrews - Bedminster - JBA

Was there no meal on AF1?

[C_U_L8R]

10. $130 each way on the DC NYC shuttle

Geez we’re getting fleeced

[former9thward]

15. The media is paying for it.

Who is getting fleeced? If the media did not want to pay for it they would arrange there own flights instead of relying on the taxpayer supported Travel Office.

[C_U_L8R]

16. You're right... THEY are getting fleeced

I hope they at least get served peanuts

[struggle4progress]

11. Gold Diggers of 1933