![First Lady Melania Trump tours the site of the Giza Pyramids in October.](https://cdn.govexec.com/media/img/cd/2018/11/02/44442652814_f3be9e028f_o/860x394.jpg?1626824673)
First Lady Melania Trump tours the site of the Giza Pyramids in October. Andrea Hanks/White House
Melania Trump Spent One Day In Cairo And The Hotel Bill Was Over $95,000
She's supposedly running a "lean" operation, but the first lady's recent hotel bill was higher than her husband's.
Melania Trump’s stay in Cairo during her October trip to Africa cost taxpayers $95,050, according to federal spending records.
The first lady and her entourage racked up the tab at the Semiramis Intercontinental Cairo, which offers rooms starting at $119. The hotel’s presidential suite can be rented for $699, which includes $156.50 in taxes, per the property’s website.
A spokeswoman for the first lady says Trump was in Cairo for six hours and didn’t actually spend the night at the hotel.
Although a 2017 Fox News analysis of White House staffing data called the first lady’s office ”one of the leanest East Wing operations in recent history,” her bill at the Semiramis Intercontinental Cairo was significantly higher than the $77,345.35 that the government spent on her husband’s two-night stay last July at his golf course in Scotland with, among others, son Eric, chief of staff John Kelly, press secretary Sarah Sanders, and social media director Dan Scavino.
The first lady stopped in Cairo after touring Ghana, Malawi, and Kenya in an effort to demonstrate to the world that “we care.” When pressed by a reporter in Egypt on her decision to wear a jacketreading, “I really don’t care, do u” across the back during her June visit to migrant children along the Texas-Mexico border, the former model replied, “I wish people would focus on what I do, not what I wear.” (Her plea has not been heeded.)
Payment was made to the hotel in Cairo on Sept. 30, about a week prior to the first lady’s arrival on Saturday, Oct. 6. The description of the expenditure reads simply, “FLOTUS visit hotel rooms.” No detailed breakdown of the payment, or how many rooms were rented, are provided in the data but ostensibly the tab includes the cost of the first lady’s Secret Service detail and various support staff.
The bill for Melania Trump’s stay at the Semiramis Intercontinental Cairo.
The Semiramis Intercontinental is located along the River Nile in central Cairo. Amenities include a rooftop pool, free wifi, and a 24-hour business center.