The Real Reason No President Went to the Super Bowl Before Trump (original) (raw)

President Donald Trump became the first president to attend the Super Bowl over the weekend, but that doesn’t mean he’s the first president who ever wanted to.

During the latest episode of Pod Save America, former President Barack Obama’s aides-turned-podcasters revealed the reasons their boss never took them to star-studded sporting events.

“I watched this and thought, ‘Why couldn’t we have gone to stuff?’ Every time Obama wanted to do something cool, we were told it was a security risk or it was going to inconvenience people,” host Tommy Vietor said.

He also pointed out that when the former president and first lady Michelle Obama left Washington to see a Broadway play early in Obama’s first term, conservative pundits “went insane for weeks” accusing them of being out of touch and complaining that they’d spent taxpayer money.

Pod Save America hosts Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, and Tommy Vietor said they didn’t get to go to cool events when they worked in the White House because it was expensive and a security risk. / Pod Save America/YouTube

TIME magazine listed the trip as one of Obama’s top 10 “all-time backfires,” with some estimates putting the price tag at about $72,000.

On Sunday, Trump flew from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, to New Orleans to watch the Philadelphia Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs at Caesars Superdome. En route, he held a press conference midair proclaiming Feb. 9 “Gulf of America Day” in honor of the newly renamed Gulf of Mexico.

“I would love to know how much it costs to pack up Air Force One, fly to New Orleans, rename a gulf—a body of water—and then leave at halftime,” Vietor said.

According to Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), it costs 177,842perflighthourtooperateAirForceOne.ThatwouldputTrump’sroundtripatabout177,842 per flight hour to operate Air Force One. That would put Trump’s round trip at about 177,842perflighthourtooperateAirForceOne.ThatwouldputTrump’sroundtripatabout800,000. At least two other aircraft also fly along with Air Force One at all times, and then there’s the cost of securing a huge event like the Super Bowl, which about 65,700 fans attended this year.

“But that’s not part of the conversation because of this massive conservative bias,” Vietor said.

Fox News—which led the “frivolous spending” charge against Obama—aired the game and interviewed Trump before it, he said.