I asked @VP Pence to leave stadium if any players kneeled, disrespecting our country. I am proud of him and @SecondLady Karen.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 8 October 2017
NFL players only started standing for the national anthem in 2009 after the Pentagon paid them millions of dollars to do so.
Here is Pence himself recognising this:
We were proud to stand - with all our @Colts - for our soldiers, our flag, and our National Anthem 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/mkZiKMkPDD
— Vice President Pence (@VP) 8 October 2017
But while Trump tries to rally Americans around the flag, he has given his glamorous daughter Ivanka and office in the White House while her clothing and accessories products are manufactured in cheap Communist Chinese sweatshops!
And how much did this PR stunt cost America?
Pence’s office did not answer a request for comment on the price and purpose of the trip. It costs the federal government about $43,000 an hour to fly Air Force Two, according to a 2012 estimate by the Air Force. Assuming a total flight time of six hours for the journey east and then west again, the tab for the flight alone would have topped $250,000.
That only accounts for some of the expense. Sam Myers Sr., who spent eight years as then-Vice President Joe Biden’s trip director, estimated Pence’s entourage likely included some 50 staffers. But, he said, “the support when the principal hits the ground is when the costs kick in,” pointing to Secret Service agents deployed from the local field office; police to provide security along the motorcade route and at the perimeter of the event; an ambulance for the motorcade; and extra trauma teams on hand at a local hospital, among others — with many earning overtime wages for working on a Sunday.
[source : Trump says he directed Pence to walk out of game if 49ers protested during national anthem, Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2017/10/08/vice-president-pence-walks-out-of-colts-game-over-49ers-national-anthem-protests/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_pence-138pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory, 8th October 2017]
So well over a quarter of a million dollars.
And all for the Pentagon.
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