Name: The Trump campaign has cut travel on Air Force One for its staff as it copes with a spending crisis
Brand: businessinsider.com
SKU: businessinsider-com-716
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

The Trump campaign has cut travel on Air Force One for its staff as it copes with a spending crisis

preview

An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowThe Trump campaign has stopped flying almost all of its staff on Air Force One with the president as it tries to salvage an operation beset by wild spending, advisers to the reelection effort told Insider.Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien cut the flights for staff after he took control in July as part of a broader review of the runaway spending under his predecessor, Brad Parscale. Stepien and senior media strategist Jason Miller are the only staffers now flying regularly on Air Force One.&nbsp;Too many campaign staffers were catching rides on Air Force One, an expensive flight compared to flying commercial, one Trump adviser said. The campaign has to reimburse the government for each of its employees&nbsp; who ride on the presidential jet. The bills can add up quickly with frequent travel to rallies.Before Stepien took control, staff including Parscale, then-campaign press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and an entourage of six to eight other employees would often fly Air Force One to Trump's rallies. Now they're required to book the cheapest commercial flights available.The decision to drop Air Force One travel comes as the campaign is both ramping up its work in the remaining six weeks of the presidential race and still bailing out from spending under Parscale, who was demoted in July to senior adviser for data and digital operations.&nbsp;Insider reported in July that the Trump campaign had launched an internal review of its spending under Parscale who became known for his extravagance. He drew the ire of Trump and the president's supporters earlier this year of a waterfront condo in Florida, a new boat, a Ferrari, and a Range Rover."They've tried to cut back on the margins," the Trump adviser said of the campaign. "They've spent a lot of money; the burn rate is enormous."&nbsp;The "burn rate" refers to the amount of money being spent compared to how much the campaign is bringing in. Excessive spending famously cut short former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's 2016 bid for president after only a few months.&nbsp;Since Trump took office, his campaign, the Republican National Committee, and other affiliated groups have paid at least $4.7 million in travel expenses to the government, according to a search of FEC reports.Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, which has tracked spending on Air Force One, received public records putting the average at about $142,000 per hour. It determined that an August 2017 trip by Trump to Arizona cost about $1.5 million.Few people fly free on the that boasts 4,000 square feet of floor space, and the best meals in the air. News organizations also must pay for their reporters who travel with the president on Air Force One. Permanent medical staff and government-provided security personnel necessary to protect the president are exempt from reimbursing for their trips.The White House referred questions to the Trump campaign, which did not return requests for comment about its Air Force One spending.&nbsp;"For the president, you pay a per-hour fee for how much it costs, and it is wildly expensive," said Jim Messina, campaign manager for Obama's 2012 reelection bid. "For staff, you pay the equivalent of a first-class ticket for every staffer who travels."And that can include guests, which helps to shoot up the costs, he added.Under Stepien, the campaign recently dropped off the air in battleground states such as Michigan, and has cut into its digital advertising budget. It also nixed plans to buy advertising on a NASCAR vehicle and on a blimp, and canceled Parscale's use of a personal driver, Trump advisers said.&nbsp;Stepien accepted a significant pay cut when he took over as Trump's campaign manager, they noted. According to The New York Times, the Trump campaign hundreds of millions of dollars under Parscale on expenses that included highly paid consultants, pricey Super Bowl ads, and even on magnetic pouches for storing cellphones during fundraising events to prevent attendants from secretly recording and leaking Trump's remarks.The move to end Air Force One campaign staff travel is a stunning turn for Trump, who has raised more than $1.1 billion for his re-election and is still pulling in historic amounts of campaign contributions.&nbsp;Despite concern among Trump advisers, the president is still awash in money — much . Trump's campaign ended July with $120 million in the bank, compared to Biden's $99 million. And the Republican National Committee, a powerful auxiliary of the Trump campaign, ended that month with $110 million in the bank.&nbsp; he may give $100 million of his own money to his campaign. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg later also announced he was spending $100 million of his money to give Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden an edge in Florida.&nbsp;Republican donors have been fretting for months that Trump was being outraised by Democrats and have complained privately about the efforts of Trump's de facto super PAC, America First Action.&nbsp;Trump's cash advantage looked daunting earlier in the year before former Biden locked in the Democratic nomination.&nbsp;But the Democratic nominee has been regularly beating Trump in monthly fundraising hauls since the summer. Trump advisers fretted when Biden and the Democratic National Committee $365 million in August beating Trump and the RNC's haul of .&nbsp;Top Trump donors, including Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, plan to give heavily to a new super PAC, Preserve America, run by veteran Republican operative Chris LaCivita, .Travel costs of a few million dollars may seem trivial when viewed alone, but when taken as part of a serious effort to rein in spending, they matter, said a second Trump adviser."It all adds up," the second Trump campaign adviser said. "The blimp, the NASCAR sponsorship, saving money on TV — it's not one thing that gives you a ton of money, it's doing them all that adds up."&nbsp;&nbsp;Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know.Subscribe to push notificationsAn icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.Keep readingIt indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.For you

An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowThe Trump campaign has stopped flying almost all of its staff on Air Force One with the president as it tries to salvage an operation beset by wild spending, advisers to the reelection effort told Insider.Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien cut the flights for staff after he took control in July as part of a broader review of the runaway spending under his predecessor, Brad Parscale. Stepien and senior media strategist Jason Miller are the only staffers now flying regularly on Air Force...

public

Tom LoBianco

What you want to know about business. A section of @thisisinsider. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Visit our homepage for the day's top stories.

The Trump campaign has cut travel on Air Force One for its staff as it copes with a spending crisis

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS