Washington: The Treasury secretary requested a military plane for his European honeymoon. The chief of the Environmental Protection Agency dinged taxpayers for repeated excursions back home to Oklahoma.
In normal times, Washington’s scandal machinery would be kicking into high gear. Mounting outrage — some real, some calculated — would lead to months of hearings and calls for criminal investigations.
The abundant wealth of two of the fancy flyers, Treasury Secretary Steven T Mnuchin and Health Secretary Tom Price, would only amplify the criticism.
But the unceasing turmoil of Donald Trump’s presidency has muted the outcry. It’s hard for the champagne tastes of a Cabinet secretary to garner much attention when the president is picking a racially-tinged fight with pro athletes, drawing plaudits from white supremacists, battling a special prosecutor probing Russia’s role in his election and warning that he might nuke North Korea.
“We’ve now gone through over a year of campaigning and 10 months of Trump as president-elect and now president,” said Lara Brown, who heads the Graduate School of Political Management at the capital’s George Washington University.
Having witnessed so many uproars — over provocative remarks, outlandish behavior, impolitic actions — “nothing seems scandalous anymore,” Brown said.
There are government rules intended to prevent high living among those in high places. Federal guidelines state that taxpayers “should pay no more than necessary” for officials’ transportation, which in practice has meant flying commercial, barring extraordinary circumstance. Some members of Trump’s Cabinet, among the richest appointees ever to serve in government, have eschewed the necessary sacrifice and reached into their own pockets for upgraded accommodations.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who has reported as much as $1.5 billion (Dh5.5 billion) in assets, travels on her personally-owned aircraft at zero cost to taxpayers, according to the department.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is worth as much as $687 million, charges the government nothing for travel on his leased private jet, a spokesman said. Others in the administration have been less penny-wise.
Mnuchin, a former Wall Street executive and Hollywood producer worth as much as $350 million, married Scottish actress Louise Linton in June at Trump International Hotel near the White House.
He requested an Air Force jet for his honeymoon to Scotland, France and Italy. His office said he needed access to secure communications during the trip, but withdrew the request after finding another option.
Mnuchin did take a military jet last month from New York to Washington, saying once again he needed a secure phone line. The August 15 flight cost at least $25,000, ABC News reported.
Scott Pruitt, the EPA chief, has been criticised for his frequent travels back to Oklahoma. Although he has flown commercial, the high-priced fares suggest he was probably not travelling coach.
The travel tastes of Mnuchin and Pruitt have triggered investigations by the inspectors general of each of their agencies. The inquiries will determine whether any federal rules were broken.
But with Republicans controlling both houses of Congress as well as the White House, there is little appetite to scrutinise Cabinet members with as much fervor as, say, the multiple inquiries into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of State.
“There’s just no enthusiasm for pursuing things when they’re a member of your own tribe,” said Scott Basinger, a University of Houston political scientist and expert on political scandal.
As for Trump himself, Brown sees little danger of political harm to the president.
“He did say he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and it wouldn’t matter,” Brown said. “There is, sadly, truth to that.”
— Los Angeles Times
