First lady Michelle Obama is on a five-day trip to a luxury resort along with a handful of friends, her younger daughter, Sasha, aides and Secret Service personnel.
Luxurious: The Obamas and their party are staying at the Villa Padierna in Marbella, which is rated as one of the top hotels in the world
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By Peter Nicholas and Katherine Skiba
Tribune Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — As the U.S. economy endures high unemployment and a jittery stock market, President Obama has preached sacrifice and fiscal discipline. But the pictures coming out of a sunsplashed Spanish resort this week may be sending a different message.
First lady Michelle Obama is on a five-day trip to a luxury resort along with a handful of friends, her younger daughter, Sasha, aides and Secret Service personnel. Her office said the first family will pay for personal expenses, but declined to reveal the taxpayer cost for the government employees. The president stayed home in the United States, as did daughter Malia, 12, who is at camp.
The trip provided plenty of fodder for television news shows, talk-show hosts and bloggers.
Critics portrayed the foreign getaway as tone deaf to the economic anxiety back home. Earlier in the week, the first lady was photographed walking through the streets of the Costa del Sol region wearing a one-shouldered Jean Paul Gaultier top.
Every first family takes vacations. The criticism aimed at Michelle Obama is that she chose to visit a foreign country rather than remain in the United States and support its fragile economy.
In July, the first lady flew to the Florida Panhandle, a tourist spot hit hard by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and delivered the message that for parents "looking for things to do with their kids this summer ... this is a wonderful place to visit."
The opulence of the European trip also has drawn scrutiny. Michelle Obama is staying at the Hotel Villa Padierna, a Ritz-Carlton resort in the mountains outside Marbella. The resort has two golf courses, a posh spa with Turkish baths, views of the Mediterranean Sea and a high-end restaurant specializing in avant-garde fare. Room rates start at $400 and rise to $6,500 for a two-bedroom villa with a private pool and 24-hour butler service.
The danger for the Obamas is that the trip may feed perceptions they are out of touch with struggling American families, said Chris Wilson, a Republican pollster.
"This in and of itself doesn't hurt President Obama, but it plants a seed in voters' minds ... that 'they're not like me,' " he said.
While her friends arrived in Spain on their own, Michelle Obama flew in on a type of aircraft also used by Vice President Joseph Biden. It costs the government $11,555 an hour to operate the plane, according to the Air Force. Assuming a nearly eight-hour flight to nearby Málaga, the total round-trip cost of the flight is about $178,000.
The Obama family will reimburse the government an amount equal to two first-class tickets — for mother and daughter Sasha, Air Force officials said. A round-trip first-class flight to Málaga costs about $7,400 apiece, without discounts or restrictions.
Anita McBride, who was chief of staff to former first lady Laura Bush, was not surprised the trip has its critics.
When you are a public figure, it can be difficult to lead a private life. Despite the fact that much of this trip is paid for personally, the American people know that there are costs borne by the taxpayers and it's to be expected that the more expensive the trip, the greater the risk of criticism," McBride said.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to answer questions about the vacation, saying it is a "private trip."
An unspecified number of Secret Service agents and aides are staying at government expense. Edwin Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service, declined to say how many agents are with the first lady in Spain.
An Obama administration official said the first lady is accompanied by "a handful of longtime family friends — it's moms and daughters — and it's minimal staff." One aide on the trip is the first lady's deputy chief of staff, Melissa Winter.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the destination was chosen by Michelle Obama and her friends.
On Friday, Spanish police cleared off a 100-yard stretch of beach in Marbella for Michelle Obama and Sasha, 9. As the first lady rested inside a canvas hut by the shore, Sasha splashed around in the sea and a security guard swam with her.
The first lady is to meet with King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia on Sunday at their summer residence on the island of Mallorca.
After the first lady returns home, she and her family will travel to the Gulf Coast for the weekend of Aug. 14, followed by a 10-day vacation on Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.
Kathleen Hennessey and Michael A. Memoli of the Tribune Washington Bureau contributed to this report. Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.
Michelle Obama meets Spain's king
PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain – U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and daughter Sasha had lunch with Spain's king and queen on Sunday at the royal family's holiday retreat on the resort island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean.
Mrs. Obama and her daughter arrived at Marivent palace shortly before 1 p.m. and were greeted at the front door of the residence by King Juan Carlos, Queen Sofia and Princess Letizia.
The king, a keen yachtsman, has for decades spent August vacations at the palace with its dramatic cliff-top views of the sea on the Balearic island's southwestern coast near Palma de Mallorca.
Lunch was Andalusian-style chilled gazpacho soup, chargrilled turbot, veal escalopes with mustard, Oriental rice with sauteed mushrooms, a Mallorca-style vegetable ratatouille and sliced fruit with ice cream, accompanied by wines from the northern regions of Rueda and Rioja, the palace said.
The lunch meeting marked the end of a five-day private visit to Spain by Mrs. Obama, who toured beauty spots in the southern region of Andalusia including Marbella, Ronda and the Alhambra palace in Granada.
The king gave Mrs. Obama some seeds for the White House garden as a parting gift, while the queen made a present of handicrafts typical of Mallorca, the palace said.
After lunch the first lady's party was due to fly back to the United States aboard Air Force Two.
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Associated Press writer Harold Heckle in Madrid contributed to this report.
Michelle Obama visits Ronda
Michelle Obama followed in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles when she paid a visit to Spain's oldest bullring, the Plaza de Toros in Ronda, a picturesque town in the hills above the Costa del Sol.
The First Lady, her youngest daughter Sasha, and their group of friends left theSpanish coast and travelled to Ronda for a day of sightseeing accompanied by their vast security escort in a 13 car motorcade.
The group — which included a number of Mrs Obama's friends – visited some of the town's historic houses and later stopped for lunch at Del Escudero restaurant, set in a 19th century villa with whitewashed walls and red roof tiles located next to the bullring.
Meanwhile at the five-star luxury Villa Padierna, where the group have chosen to spend their mini-break, preparations were under way for Marbella's event of the year – a star-studded charity gala hosted by Hollywood A-listers Antonio Banderas and Eva Longoria.
Expectation was high that the First Lady would be the special guest at the event on Saturday night after she received a personal invitation from Ms Longoria, star of Desperate Housewives, who lent her support to Barack Obama during his presidential campaign.
More than 400 tickets have been sold for the Starlite Gala at 1000 euros each, according to organisers, and reports suggested that this week another 200 people had applied for tickets and were on a waiting list after learning that Mrs Obama might be present.
Among those clamouring to dine in the same room as the wife of the US President are a host of European celebrities and aristocrats, including Gunilla Gräfin von Bismarck, great-granddaughter of Otto, who has a home in Marbella.
Also in attendance will be tennis player Boris Becker with his wife Lilly Kerssenberg, and bestselling spiritual guru Deepak Chopra, who had all flown in for the fund-raising Starlite gala in aid of children's charities.
One name on the guest list that could raise a few eyebrows among US diplomatic circles is Adnan Khashoggi.
The Saudi Arabian businessman, 75, who made his name as an arms dealer in the 1980s, was linked to the Iran-Contra scandal in which the Reagan administration allegedly sanctioned the sale of weapons to Iran in breach of an international arms embargo.
Another rumoured to be on the guest list is Sir Mark Thatcher, the disgraced son of the former Prime Minister, who has a home in the hills above Marbella.
It could be one of the only opportunities for him to rub shoulders with such American elite as he has been banned from the US following his conviction in South Africa of unknowingly funding an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea.
If Mrs Obama does chose to attend the event it is unlikely that she will join guests to dance the night away at the after-party organised in Marbella's premier nightclub, the Disco Olivia Valere.
She has an invitation to lunch on Sunday with Spain's King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia at their summer palace on the island of Majorca before flying home to Washington DC.
