Trump grounds Pelosi, Melania flies Air Force to Florida same day (cost: $35,217.50)

Scammers are so petty.

In a bizarre statement today, Donald Trump “grounds” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from flying on government aircraft for a planned but not publicly disclosed to visit U.S. troops in Afghanistan and conduct America’s foreign business abroad.

Disclosing this is a violation of national security, and stupid. Some 800,000 federal workers are without pay, and with each passing day, the shutdown — we’re on day 27– threatens America’s economy and the safety of every American.

On this same day, Melania Trump flew on government aircraft to Florida, to their privately owned Mar a Lago resort. She’s there alone with their child.

The cost of this Air Force flight to taxpayers was over $35,0000, reports Quartz.

Why’d Melania do that today? No reason, huh.

ABC News reported at 642pm Eastern that the first lady had arrived in Florida, and headed to the president’s Mar a Lago club with their son Barron Trump:

The first lady’s office did not respond to ABC’s request for further comment.

Nothing more need be said.

From Quartz:

The first lady’s spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the White House. But CNN reported soon after the plane-spotting that the first lady had taken a government plane to Florida, and had landed in West Palm Beach at 6:45pm eastern time.

The first lady appears to have flown from Joint Base Andrews outside of DC in Maryland to Palm Beach aboard a US Air Force C-32A, a modified Boeing 757, which costs $14,087 per hour to operate, according to figures supplied earlier to Quartz by the Department of Defense. The flight from DC to Palm Beach takes about 2.5 hours, for a total flight cost of $35,217.50.

By comparison, a smaller Air Force C-37A, which is a modified Gulfstream V, costs just $8,227 per hour, and so would have cost approximately $20,000 for the total 2.5-hour flight. Previous presidents have used C-37As for personal travel. First ladies normally use military aircraft for security reasons, but there have been exceptions, like Barbara Bush’s 1991 commercial flight to reassure nervous Americans concerned about terrorism. A last-minute ticket on a commercial airline between Washington DC and West Palm Beach, purchased today, would have cost roughly $750.