Melania Trump spent $174,000 on hotels in Toronto during day trip

U.S. first lady Melania Trump, wife of billionaire hotel developer Donald Trump, is found to have racked up an astonishing hotel bill during her one-day trip to Toronto last September.

The kicker? She didn't even spend the night.

Federal spending records on the U.S. government's website show that the first lady spent approximately $174,000 across six different Toronto hotels on September 23.

Remember when first lady Melania Trump met Prince Harry and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year in Toronto? Government records show she racked up roughly $174,000 in hotel bills during that 12-hour trip.https://t.co/OPZ2sjuxSC

— Andrea González-Ramírez (@andreagonram) November 16, 2018

This figure does not include hotel costs for her staff, which were said to have cost another roughly $18,000 in total. Transportation costs were pegged at an additional $21,000.

As pointed out by Quartz, the first lady's own lodging charges ranged from just under $12,000 to almost $49,000 per hotel, each of which appear in the government's spending database as some variation of "TOR-HOTEL ROOMS-FLOTUS."

Hotel names aren't listed in the documents. Instead, they appear as "miscellaneous foreign awardees."

Still, based on the first lady's itinerary that day, it's almost certain that she patroned both the Sheraton Centre Hotel on Queen Street West and the Ritz-Carlton on Wellington.

Melania, I really want to like you but a $2000 child tax credit while you spend $174,000 in Toronto and $95,000 in Cairo at hotels you DON'T EVEN STAY IN??? You really don't get it, do you?

— Carla Jasinski (@JasinskiCarla) November 16, 2018

What's interesting about the purchase orders is how long a period of time some of them cover.

At least two hotels were rented for an entire month, according to the U.S government data: One from Sep and another from Sept. 12 until October 25.

She may not have been here long, but Trump most certainly had a place to sleep in Toronto (if she had wanted it) for most of last autumn.

by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO