The venality and corruption of this administration is so overwhelming that we can lose sight of the sheer, unadulterated arrogance of it all.
The United States Department of State paid a hotel in Cairo nearly a $100,000 for a single day of services during Melania Trump’s trip to Egypt, part of her tour of the African continent, according to a government spending report. According to Quartz, the Semiramis Intercontinental Cairo received $95,050 for “FLOTUS Visit Hotel Rooms” on September 30 from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
Except Melania Trump didn’t even stay there that night.
[A]ccording to a spokesperson for the First Lady, Melania only spent six hours in Cairo, and didn’t spend the night at the Intercontinental.
She was only in Cairo for six hours, being fêted by the country’s corrupt and murderous rulers, who took her sightseeing (here’s an awesome shot of her in front of the pyramids). She didn’t sleep at the hotel. So, who did? And what could have possibly cost us nearly $100,000?
More importantly, why are U.S. taxpayers footing the bills for these types of pointless, vapid junkets? So Melania can get a photo-op in her sleek desert garb?
During the course of her first solo trip, Trump was also criticized for wearing what looked like a colonial-style pith helmet in Kenya and called out for visiting programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development as the White House moved to slash its foreign aid budget.
Are we to believe she was in Cairo, Egypt to support her so-called “anti-bullying" initiative? To urge Egyptian despot Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to "Be Best?"
No. The only thing she did on this trip was vogue for the cameras. And even if she had a 50-person security detail, the going rate for rooms at this hotel was as low as $119 per night (the “Presidential suite" was $699). That, and food for one night’s stay, would certainly add up to less than $10,000 dollars. Assuming the rooms had been booked in advance, it would take 170 rooms in order to justify this bill.
Just imagine how Republicans would react if this had been a certain African-American First Lady.
Here is the reaction of her toilette to this revelation:
This is just the latest instance of Americans’ pockets being looted by this Grifter Administration.
After a new Congress is sworn in, there will be many, many more examples.