Trump claims that he gave the Air Force a discounted rate to stay at his failing golf club in Scotland, but data shows that the rate was nearly twice as much as the average hotel room cost.
Here is the statement from the Air Force confirmed their stay at Trump’s club:
US Air Force has confirmed that its personnel stayed at Trump Turnberry in March 2019. Here is the full statement to The NYT. pic.twitter.com/VHmo4NfTzW
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) September 7, 2019
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Walter Shaub crunched the numbers and found that Trump overcharged the military:
The USAF says it had to travel 54 miles from Prestwick to Trump Turnberry to get a $136 nightly rate. Prestwick is 31 miles from Glasgow (a city of only 600k), which has 15,000 hotel rooms (https://t.co/TYjF6zeNiW) and, in 2017, an average rate of $89 (https://t.co/5b5bS4MOvC). https://t.co/mvqmXBDYdq
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) September 7, 2019
The Air Force traveled an additional 23 miles out of their way to stay at club that charged them more than the average hotel room cost in the city that they were closer to.
The Trump “discounted rate” scam might sound familiar because it is why Ivanka Trump is under investigation for potential violations of tax law. During the Trump inauguration, Ivanka Trump offered “discounted rates” that were substantially higher than the average event space rates in the city.
There is clearly a directive within the executive branch that government agencies, officials, and even the military must stay at Trump-owned properties. Trump is engaging the type of corruption that is not normally seen in democracies. Mike Pence’s stay at Trump’s Failing club in Ireland was the tip of the iceberg, and if Congress and journalists keep digging, it is a safe bet that they will find a breathtaking level of criminal misuse of taxpayer funds and corruption.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
