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Melania Cuts First Lady Spending in Half Compared to Michelle Obama | MK Entertainment - Duration: 3:57.
Melania Cuts First Lady Spending in Half Compared to Michelle Obama.
First lady Melania Trump has cut the budget for the White House's East Wing operations
by more than half compared to the initial year of former first lady Michele Obama.
Fox News reviewed spending reports issued by the White House during both the former
administration and the current one.
During former President Barack Obama's first year in office, a similar report showed that
16 people were working for Michelle Obama, costing taxpayers $1.24 million a year.
As of June of 2017, four people were working for the first lady, with an overall cost of
$486,700 — less than 40 percent of the amount spent under Obama.
According to those personnel reports, Melania Trump's staffers include a chief of staff,
a communications director, a deputy chief of staff and a deputy director of advance.
The reports are an approximation because the numbers in the report only document costs
of staff whose job title includes the words "first lady."
Overall, counting all of those who could be included, 24 staffers worked for Michelle
Obama, compared to only nine for Melania Trump, at similar points in both of their White House
stays.
A 2009 FactCheck.org story said Obama's 24 aides might have broken records.
"That may indeed be the largest of any first lady, but Hillary Clinton, with 19 staffers,
and Laura Bush with at least 18 and perhaps more, weren't far behind," the site reported.
And the low numbers seem to reflect the first lady's stated desire to have an impact while
not being the center of attention.
"As with all things that she does, she is being very deliberate in her hiring," Communications
Director Stephanie Grisham said.
She added the first lady is "focusing on quality over quantity."
"It is important to her that the team is a good fit for what she wants to accomplish
as first lady, and that everyone works well together," Grisham noted.
"She also wants to be mindful and responsible when it comes to taxpayer money."
One commentator said Melania Trump is simply replicating a role for first ladies that goes
back decades.
"She is more like a Pat Nixon or a Bess Truman than a Hillary Clinton or a Michelle
Obama," said Andrew Och, a first lady historian who was a producer for the C-SPAN's "First
Ladies: Influence and Image" series.
You can see an example of Melania's role here as she delivers a public service announcement
on behalf of hurricane victims:
Though sources point to Michelle Obama entering the White House with a somewhat larger agenda
than the current first lady, it hasn't gone unnoticed that Trump has ramped up her public
activity in recent weeks.
Och observed that Trump, not coming from "the world of politics," likely does not "feel
the need for the larger staffs that her predecessors have had."
According to Fox News, the first lady's office is just one of the many departments
of the White House where the current administration is continuing to trim staff positions across
the board.
In June, when the personnel report was released, Forbes reported that there were nearly 110
fewer White House employees under Trump than under Obama at the same point in his presidency.
After four years, the cuts are projected to save more than $22 million.
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