Disgraced Congressman George Santos appears to be the title gift it keeps giving — and this time it went from ruthless misrepresentation of good, basically everything in his life, to travel expenses that might raise a Kardashian eyebrow, silicon permitting.
It is not uncommon for elected officials to spend a lot on travel. No. Hopping around DC, there are plenty of refueled jets and even more first-class jets snatching each time members of Congress in the United States return to their “constituents” across the country.
What’s rare is that a local official has yet to be sworn in to spend big on trips around the country, including $14,000 on restaurant tabs and $70,000 on airfare and hotels. . As new lights emerge on campaign spending for the yet-to-be-sworn congressman-elect, it appears Santos has proverbially told other US lawmakers to hold their beer.
And surely, if he is as rich and successful as he claims to be, he could have used his own personal funds for travels outside the needs of his constituency, couldn’t he?
George Santos spent $70,000 on the trip
Let’s start with some background on typical travel spending by other local congressmen in 2022 for an apples-to-apples look.
Newly elected Republican Congressman Nick LaLota, also from Long Island, spent a total of $800 on hotels and $3,000 on airfare during his campaign. It is not unreasonable for campaign consultants to be brought in from elsewhere and of course they would need some form of accommodation.
This makes the comparison linear with the $70,000 disgraced George Santos – who apparently may have falsely claimed his mother died on 9/11, which is enough to make any New Yorker want to scream — all the more fun.
Santos spent $40,000 on plane tickets and $30,000 on hotels and Airbnb to run a grassroots campaign where the only audience that “counts” was based in New York.
According to research and reports from the New York Times, Santos also has preferences for his hotel stays. Santos preferred Hilton and Hyatt and GSTP thinks it likely earned top-tier status, given the expense.
Mr. Santos’ $30,000 campaign spent on hotels and Airbnb expenses included stays in Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, Florida, California, Kansas, Michigan, Washington, DC, New Jersey and in New York itself.
New York Times
Santos hasn’t been sworn in (yet), so he doesn’t even really need to travel to DC yet. Sure, a trip for office space, go for it – but all those others? There are also reports that Santos used campaign funds to rent a house for himself.
VIP benefits?
With $40,000 in airline spend, Santos would have cleared the hurdles to reach the heights of Diamond Medallion with Delta, which should make future upgrades easier. The New York Post reports that $38,000 of the $40,000 airline spend went to Delta.
I’d love to know if Santos achieved Delta’s secret 360° VIP status, but considering the airfare benefit last year, I somewhat doubt that $38,000 was enough.
Hopefully he won’t reap these new travel perks in the end at all, as he settles into equally expensive, but slightly less “free” accommodations to fool the good people of Strong Island.
GSTP doesn’t usually get into pop culture travel BS, but as a New Yorker who’s spent much of his life on Long Island, I’m fired up! apolitically, we simply cannot have a truly functioning country or democracy when one agrees to blatantly lie about every key detail of one’s experience, from education to work life and other affiliations.
Comments are closed.