In case this is his last year in office

He's got to squeeze all the money out of it he can.

President Donald Trump’s choice to stay at his own Las Vegas hotel each night during the western states swing that wraps up Friday likely cost taxpayers a million extra dollars as well as diverted thousands of them into his own cash registers.

Previous presidents on extended trips away from the White House typically stayed in the city of each day’s final event, or traveled to the city of the following day’s first event. Trump, instead, traveled back to Las Vegas each night from California, Arizona and Colorado to overnight at his Trump International Hotel ― requiring several extra hours’ flying time on Air Force One, a plane that costs taxpayers about a quarter-million dollars per hour in the air.

[...]

When Trump was asked about his decision to return to Las Vegas each night just before he left for California, he claimed he had nothing to do with it.

“Largely, the schedule is set by the Secret Service. We do what they want us to,” he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews just before the plane’s departure. “I don’t set the schedule. I have nothing to do with it.”

  HuffPo

Good one.

A Secret Service spokesperson told HuffPost: “The U.S. Secret Service works in conjunction with the administration on all presidential and First Family visits as our primary concern is the safety and security of those that we protect.”

Trump’s White House did not try to defend the accuracy of Trump’s claim, and instead argued that the decision to use Trump International Hotel Las Vegas as a base actually saved taxpayers’ money.

Even better.

“If the president had stayed in three different cities over three different nights that would mean three different advance teams traveling out ahead, three different USSS teams traveling ahead, it would mean impacting traffic with road closures in three different cities, taking rooms for security and communications at three different hotels, and various other necessities for presidential travel in three different cities,” said a senior White House official on condition of anonymity.

[...]

That analysis, though, ignores the single biggest driver of presidential costs: the use of Air Force One.

[...]

Had Trump held the same events but done so in a geographically logical order ― starting in Beverly Hills and finishing in Colorado Springs, but overnighting each day in the city where he would begin the following morning ― Trump would have spent four fewer hours aboard Air Force One, thereby saving taxpayers about $1.1 million.

The anonymous White House official’s claim that more motorcades would have been required also does not tell the whole story. A full motorcade ― including the presidential limousine, staff vans and various specialized trucks ― is needed in any city where Trump is traveling, regardless of whether it will be used to move him from an airport to an event site and back, or to an overnight hotel and then to the event site the next day.

What’s more, advance teams scout out a city and motorcade routes are closed to traffic on any presidential visit, regardless of whether it is for a brief visit or an overnight stay.

Indeed, the repeated overnight trips to Las Vegas may have forced the Secret Service and other support personnel to keep a motorcade there for a full four days, rather than move it to the site of an upcoming presidential trip.

It also ignores the fact that the money being spent at the hotel is going into Trump's pocket.

This week is not the first time Trump used presidential trips to spend time at his own properties, even though it added considerable travel and security costs for taxpayers. In 2018, for example, he spent two days between official meetings in London and a Helsinki summit with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin at his own resort in Scotland, rather than waiting in London. And last summer, he insisted on staying at his resort on the west coast of Ireland on the days surrounding his visit to Normandy, France, even though it required several additional hours on Air Force One.

Precisely how many taxpayer dollars wind up in Trump’s pocket from these stays cannot be determined. The White House, despite numerous queries from HuffPost over a period of months, refuses to disclose how many executive branch employees stay with Trump when he visits his own properties and how much it is costing taxpayers.

A lot. But my own personal main objection is where that money is going.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.