$6 million bill for Obama's Africa trip, $22,759 for copiers, $6,026 for 'basic phones'

By PAUL BEDARD • 7/28/15 5:22 PM

Obama in Africa

Inform

00:00 / 01:08

President Obama's five-day tour of Kenya and Ethiopia cost taxpayers $5.99 million in airfare alone and ties him for the most traveled president with Bill Clinton, according to a newNational Taxpayers Union Foundation analysis.

The report -- "Still Up in the Air: The Uncertain Costs of Presidential Travel Abroad" -- provided to Secrets shows that Obama and Clinton made 41 international trips by their seventh year as president. France and Mexico have been Obama's top destinations, with five visits each -- one more than his four visits to the troops in Afghanistan.

The taxpayer watchdog group determined that Obama's trip from Joint Base Andrews to Nairobi, Kenya, then to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia then home today has a total flight time of 29 hours.

President Obama in Ethiopia. AP Photo

The Air Force recently told Judicial Watch that it cost $206,337 an hour to fly Air Force One, putting the price just for Obama's jet at $5,983,773, said NTUF. Not included are the many millions more for lodging, security, communications and the prepositioning of cars, vans and aircraft for the president.

Study author and policy analyst Michael Tasselmyersaid, "While flight costs can be estimated, the rest of the expenses associated with travel, including security, lodging, food, and more, not just for the president and Air Force One, but additional staff and airplanes, remains opaque."

For example, Clinton once took over 500 staffers with him on a trip to China, but those costs were never made public.

Tasselmyer added: "Where in the world is Barack Obama remains the easy question, the difficult question for taxpayers is: What in the world is the cost of the travel?"

The USASpending.gov website, however, did reveal some expenditures:

-- $22,759 for copiers in Ethiopia.