# Who pays for presidential campaign trips?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-presidential-campaign-trips/185002>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 28, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-presidential-campaign-trips/185002 "2003-06-28T18:08:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-presidential-campaign-trips/185002/1 "2003-06-28T18:08:23Z")

</div>

President Bush was just in the Bay Area yesterday, with the full entourage – Air Force One, shutting down freeways, etc – and the only purpose was a $2000/plate fund raising dinner.

Now, this isn’t Bush-bashing; I know all presidents do this. But do the taxpayers pay for a purely political trip? Where all he’s doing is funding his next campaign?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-pays-for-presidential-campaign-trips/185002/2 "2003-06-28T18:18:28Z")

</div>

Campaign funds pay for part; tax dollars pay for part.

Security for a sitting president is taxpayer funded. If this funding was from campaign dollars, it would be part of the public record and a security risk.