Barack Obama has officially arrived in Hawaii for his family’s annual Christmas getaway to the state, and what a pricey trip it is: The Hawaiian Reporter estimated the cost of the vacation at more than $4 million. The exact cost of the trip is unknown, but based on the military’s most recent estimate that Air Force One costs $181,757 per hour to operate, the paper estimates the cost of the flight alone at $3,271,622, plus another $100,000 or so for Michelle Obama’s early flight down.
The trip will be more expensive than past vacations, the paper said, because Obama extended it by three days, and because the price of running Air Force One has jumped. The piece has garnered criticism on conservative sites, and even prompted one reporter to ask Jay Carney if Michelle Obama’s early trip “isn’t quite an extravagance,” according to Politico. Carney said she was traveling alone via military aircraft “as previous first ladies have done." (More Air Force One stories.)
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