Sohn: President Trump's parks donation could be expanded

Staff Photo by Robin Rudd A pyramid of cannon balls marks the place were Confederate Colonel Peyton Colquit was mortally wounded during the 1863 battle of Chickamauga. President Donald Trump's donation of some of his presidential salary could have a impact on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd A pyramid of cannon balls marks the place were Confederate Colonel Peyton Colquit was mortally wounded during the 1863 battle of Chickamauga. President Donald Trump's donation of some of his presidential salary could have a impact on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

Let's not get too dewy-eyed about President Donald Trump's reported decision to donate the first quarter earnings of his $400,000 presidential salary to the National Park Service - and therefore perhaps some share of it to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

After all, Trump has no problem whatsoever wasting more than $3 million a pop (one GAD estimate) to spend weekends at his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. That $3 million, by the way, is almost as much as the roughly $3.4 million operating budget of the Chickamauga park.

Meanwhile, Trump's budget proposal called for the Department of the Interior's budget to be slashed by $1.6 billion. Against that backdrop, his White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, in April posed for a photo opportunity handing a check to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Harpers Ferry National Historic Park Superintendent Tyrone Brandyburg. The message was unmistakable. The president wanted to be congratulated for donating three months presidential salary - $78,333 - to the National Park Service.

Trump's check amounted to 2.6 percent of what we taxpayers spend for just one Trump weekend vacation to Florida. And to date, our president has made 25 trips to Mar-a-Lago.

Tab to us - and at the expense of parks like ours and other important U.S. spending? A whooping $75 million.

And that doesn't even include other Trump visits at other Trump properties.

According to a running tally maintained online by the New York Times, over the 109 days that Trump had been president as of May 8, he had visited at least one Trump property on 36 different days of his presidency - just over a third of his days on the job. That included 14 trips to Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla.; five trips to Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va.; four trips to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.; three trips to Trump International Washington (a hotel); and one trip to Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla.

The Mar-a-Lago Club already has seemingly benefited from Trump's presidency: The club raised its initiation fee from $100,000 to $200,000 after Trump was elected, and members and former members around Mar-a-Lago have told CNN there is now an added cachet with frequently visiting the President's club.

The Boston Globe recently noted that Ronald Reagan played the cowboy when he hosted Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Reagan's Rancho del Cielo in Southern California. George H.W. Bush brought numerous world leaders, including President Francois Mitterrand of France, to his Kennebunkport compound in Maine. George W. Bush reportedly met with 18 foreign leaders at his Crawford, Texas, ranch.

But there's a difference between those visit locations and Mar-a-Lago. None of those presidential, down-home, out-of-Washington meeting places were private, President-owned clubs that sold memberships.

Presidents Clinton and Obama, without the fancy homes to entertain away from Washington, used established government retreats including Camp David, the official presidential retreat in Maryland, or Sunnylands, the former Annenberg Estate in California that has been set aside for the use of presidents.

Trump has shown no interest in those locations, never mind that they already had security details in place.

Instead, Mar-a-Lago books members and sells dinners - remember the "most beautiful" chocolate cake Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were eating when Trump ordered the missile strikes on a Syrian air base in April - and makes money for the Trump family with each presidential visit.

That means Trump's family benefits while we spend $3 million for him to play presidential club owner. So for Trump to get any kind of warm, fuzzy feeling for donating $78,333 to the National Park Service is the height of hypocrisy and ridiculousness.

Make no mistake: We will not turn down the welcome news reported in USA Today last week that Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is at the top of a list of three parks to benefit from Trump foregoing his presidential salary. Our park, which receives more than 1 million visitors a year, could start work on two projects right away: repairing erosion on Point Park Trail and restoring the 1938-era Ochs Museum.

Our park's $3.4 million budget allows Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park to pay for fewer than three dozen park employees, as well as the utilities for the park's two visitor centers in Fort Oglethorpe and on Lookout Mountain, fuel for park vehicles and maintenance equipment, as well as supplies for programs and small projects. Meanwhile, the deferred maintenance backlog for preservation of our nation's first military park and its historic lands and monuments is close to $21 million.

Just think - had President Trump cut back by just one third - seven trips - on his visits to Mar-a-Lago, we taxpayers would save enough money to erase that backlog. Or we might save enough to fund the park's operating budget for seven more years.

How about that for a donation, Mr. President?

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