Greg Bruhn: Trump not tightening his belt

This past weekend marks the fifth weekend President Trump has chosen to spend a taxpayer funded get-away to his “Winter White House” at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., to the tune $3 million plus for security and the use of Air-Force One.

I won’t begrudge the president some weekend leisure time. All of us need to decompress from the stresses of life from time to time, and I imagine $3 million could make most of us as feel relaxed as a wet noodle, especially when someone else is picking up the tab.

Republican President Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to establish Camp David in western Maryland as a weekend retreat from the rigorous demands of the presidency during the 1950s. What was apparently good enough for Ike and his successors, doesn’t meet Trump’s glitzy standards.

Compared to Mara-a-Lago, Camp David might come too close to the rustic qualities of Abe Lincoln’s cabin, our first Republican president.

With all the proposals for draconian cuts to government, each of the trips to Mara-a-Lago is a contradiction to that position. Leaders lead by example, and I’ve seen no evidence that the POTUS has tightened his belt.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 8:38 PM with the headline "Greg Bruhn: Trump not tightening his belt."