David Jackson and John Fritze | USA TODAY

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – Before they saw President Donald Trump, the thousands of supporters who attended his rally earlier this month in Pennsylvania first saw a symbol of the presidency: the iconic blue-and-white jet instantly recognizable as Air Force One.

As the presidential plane approached the small airport where Trump would speak, audio of air traffic controllers clearing it to land was piped through speakers. A senior Trump campaign aide posted a video of the plane taxiing up to the stage, where it would remain throughout the rally as a dramatic visual backdrop.

Trump's trip to Pennsylvania was only the latest example in which he has relied on Air Force One for campaigning, raising long-standing questions about how taxpayer money is allocated for political travel. The plane, usually a Boeing 747, has carried Trump to rallies, fundraisers and events billed as official business in states such as Pennsylvania and Florida that are crucial to his hopes for reelection in 2020.

Matt Rourke, AP

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Trump's campaign reimburses the government for a portion of the travel but in a mystery that has frustrated watchdog groups for decades, there is secrecy around how the White House accounts for Air Force One and other travel expenses.

White House and Trump campaign officials said they follow federal regulations, but declined to provide details.

"It's up to the White House to determine if the trip has a political purpose," said Brendan Doherty, a political scientist at the U.S. Naval Academy and an expert on presidential travel and fundraising. "We usually don't get a full picture of what that cost is."

Such trips are not unique to Trump. His predecessors, including President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush, also logged many hours on Air Force One for trips focused on official business, campaigning or a mix of both.

Trump criticized Obama for the practice in 2016.

"Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary," Trump tweeted. "A total disgrace!"

Frequent flier

Trump has flown on Air Force One for roughly two dozen trips this year, according to a USA TODAY analysis of dispatches filed by reporters traveling with him. At least 10 trips involved some political activity, from a fundraiser tacked on to an otherwise official trip, to rallies in Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida and Pennsylvania.

The president this month used his office on board the plane to tape a 30-second video blasting New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, a move that drew criticism from watchdog groups.

"If you like high taxes and you like crime, you can vote for him," Trump said as he flew to New York for fundraisers.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, chairwoman of the House Administration Committee, raised the de Blasio video in a May 21 letter to the White House in which she requested more documentation on how the president's aides are deciding which trips to reimburse.

"There is opacity in the way the White House designates an event as 'political' versus 'official,'" the California Democrat wrote. "The public has very little insight into whether and by what magnitude the American taxpayer is subsidizing the president's campaign activities."

As with previous presidents, taxpayers pay for what is considered the official business of White House travel, which often involves policy pronouncements, bill signings and speeches. The president's campaign or political parties are required to reimburse the government for the "political" aspects of a visit.

That’s where the accounting begins to get opaque.

Neither Trump, nor his predecessors, have disclosed how officials determine what portion of a trip is “political.” The White House doesn’t release the cost of individual trips. Though payments from the Trump campaign to the government show up in quarterly campaign finance reports, there is no way to determine which payment corresponds to which trip.

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A look at Air Force One

Even for a purely political trip, a presidential campaign doesn’t reimburse the government for the cost of operating Air Force One, which the Pentagon pegs at $165,000 per hour. Instead, Federal Election Commission rules require campaigns to reimburse the government for the estimated cost of a charter flight.The cost of flying the plane itself is a mystery.

The Pentagon's hourly estimate, used for internal government accounting, frequently changes. A Government Accountability Office report in January estimated the cost of four flights to Florida in 2017 at $4.4 million, which would put the hourly rate at about $275,000.

Perk of incumbency

Incumbency is a big advantage for any politician seeking re-election, especially presidents. And nothing symbolizes the power of the presidency more than Air Force One, which attracts sightseers wherever it lands, from Houston to Helsinki.

Sitting presidents have been flying for less than a century. President Franklin Roosevelt was the first White House occupant to use air travel for government business. On Jan. 11, 1943, in the midst of World War II, FDR boarded a prop-propelled Pan Am Dixie Clipper for a secret trip to Casablanca and a meeting with Winston Churchill.

President Ronald Reagan's administration created written guidelines in 1982 on how to divide the cost of trips involving official business and politics. A 2012 report from the non-partisan Congressional Research Service found that, since then, "the travel policies of specific administrations concerning the reimbursement of expenses for unofficial travel generally are not publicly available."

Asked by USA TODAY to reveal how much the campaign reimbursed the government for travel expenses incurred during a single rally to Missoula, Montana, last fall, a Trump campaign official said they would need to look into it.

"It's kind of left to the good faith discretion of the office holder," said Adav Noti, senior director with the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center. A former FEC lawyer, Noti said the law about who pays for what is "very murky," and "more clarity in this area would be helpful."

A source familiar with the accounting for Air Force One who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal details noted that most aspects of the president's travel remain a tightly held secret for security. The amount of money spent on a trip can be used to determine the level of effort that goes into planning the president's travel, which can offer clues about sensitive security details.

Politics vs. official

Trump’s trips to San Antonio and Houston in April were mostly political. After landing in the state, the president took part in a “roundtable with supporters” and then spoke to a lunch fundraiser for his campaign and the Republican National Committee.

The president then flew to Houston, where he delivered "official" remarks to the International Union of Operating Engineers. He signed two executive orders intended to give the White House more control over pipelines and to speed environmental reviews.

Sam Greene, The Enquirer - USA TODAY NETWORK

He made a similar trip in early May, touring damage wrought by Hurricane Michael in Florida last year – an official event – before speaking at a rally in Panama City Beach.

Trump made roughly 100 trips to states outside of Washington in 2018, his first midterm election year as president, according to a USA TODAY analysis. That pace was roughly equivalent with Obama’s travel in 2010. About half of Trump’s trips in 2018 included at least some political activity, compared to roughly a third for Obama in 2010.

Campaign finance reports at the FEC show that, so far, Trump is reimbursing the government at a slower pace than Obama did. In 2010, an entity affiliated with the Democratic National Committee reimbursed the government for more than $700,000 for Obama's travel.

For last year's midterm, by contrast, the Trump campaign sent the U.S. Treasury $211,000 for flights and other travel expenses.

But a Trump campaign official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal accounting, said there is often a significant lag between when an Air Force One flight occurs and when the campaign receives a bill. That assertion is backed up by the fact that the Democratic Party continued to reimburse the government for hundreds of thousands of dollars in Air Force One expenses held over from Obama well into Trump's first year in office.

The official said the Trump campaign sought to address that lag – and the inevitable comparisons to Obama – by estimating the amount it would ultimately pay for Air Force One and other travel expenses and including that number as a debt on FEC reports. Beginning late last year, the Trump campaign added a $1,006,954 debt to the government for what it described as estimated travel expenses.

In the first three months of 2019, the campaign paid down $638,264 of that balance.

When those numbers were included, Trump appeared to be paying more for travel.

'A secret number'

White House officials under both Trump and Obama largely dismissed specific questions about how they account for presidential travel.

Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, asserted that the administration funds the official portion of trips and that the “appropriate political committee funds their portion of the president’s political travel.” That, essentially, is a restatement of FEC regulations.

Michael Glassner, the chief operating officer for the Trump campaign, said only that “we comply with all Treasury protocol and FEC regulations.”

Obama faced many of the same questions, particularly after he traveled with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Air Force in 2016 to a joint campaign appearance. One of the most vocal critics of that flight: Donald Trump.

"Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? She is flying with him tomorrow," Trump tweeted in July. "Who pays?"

Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? She is flying with him tomorrow. Who pays? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2016

Then-White House spokesman Josh Earnest responded at the time with an answer that is strikingly similar to how Trump aides explain the travel.

"The Obama administration follows all the rules and regulations about paying for political travel that previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, have followed," Earnest said at the time.

Still, the issue has drawn renewed scrutiny because some of Trump's official events mirror the atmospherics of his campaign events, highlighting the difficulty of drawing clear lines. At a Georgia event last month focused on opioids, Trump took the stage to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” just as he does for his campaign rallies. At a tax day roundtable in Minnesota, Trump encouraged listeners to “elect Republicans,” promising its candidates would give citizens a “much better” alternative to the Affordable Care Act after the election.

Trump, like past presidents, is not bound by the Hatch Act, which puts limits on the ability of government officials to take part in political activities. But his campaign is required to follow FEC rules on travel.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to White House Counsel Emmet Flood in October seeking more detail about how the administration handles travel reimbursements in situations where Trump is giving an official speech but then unexpectedly advocates for the election of a candidate.

“The White House’s calculation of travel expenses can be especially challenging when the president travels to what is intended as an official event, but then engages in impromptu partisan activity,” Wyden wrote. “It is essential that taxpayer dollars are not used to subsidize partisan political activities.”

A Wyden aide said the senator’s office never received a response.

The lack of clarity around exactly how much a campaign reimburses taxpayers for trips has vexed those studying the issue for decades.

"That is a magic number," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, which probed the cost of Air Force One travel during the Obama administration. "A secret number."