The humiliation of Vice President Mike Pence by his boss continues apace. Pence has been caught up in an emoluments scandal, spending the nights of his official trip to Ireland at a Trump property 180 miles from where his meetings were. Pence's chief of staff Marc Short said Tuesday that these accommodations were a "suggestion" from Trump—not a "command," but what sounds like a very broad hint. Not so, says the White House now, that's "misreporting," and "at no time did the President direct" Pence's stay at Trump's Doonbeg hotel. No matter what Pence's chief of staff said.
Nonetheless, it's money in the Trump Organization's coffers from the American taxpayer, and a violation of the emoluments clauses of the Constitution, by the way. Here's what that stay, 180 miles from Dublin, entailed, The Washington Post reports: “For Pence, the choice to stay in Doonbeg meant about four hours in transit. On Tuesday, he spent one hour in a motorcade from the golf resort to Shannon Airport, then another hour or so on the 140-mile flight to Dublin, then took another motorcade to his meetings. Then he did it all over again, in reverse, that evening.”
That's four extra flights in Air Force 2, four extra motorcade trips, not to mention the security. But don't worry: "Short said that the government had negotiated room rates with Trump's hotel." So the taxpayers got a "negotiated" rate from Trump. By the way, the last vice president to make a state visit to Ireland was Joe Biden. He stayed at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Dublin.