President Obama’s $100 million trip to African offers “great bang for our buck,” the White House said Friday.
Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes defended the cost of Obama’s upcoming trip to South Africa, Senegal and Tanzania, which could cost taxpayers as much as $100 million.
He said the White House doesn’t determine the cost of security, and argued traveling to the often overlooked region would help the U.S.
“Frankly, there will be a great bang for our buck for being in Africa, because when you travel to regions like Africa that don’t get a lot of presidential attention, you can have very long-standing and long-running impact from the visit,” Rhodes said.
The White House spokesman added that “the president’s not going to retreat from an entire continent on terms of the cost.”

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