Republicans have been heavily critical of this spending, and Trump pledged, while campaigning, that "we're going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs". Coming so close to the inauguration, the new expenditure is likely to spark controversy for this reason.
Staying close to home on Inauguration Day is certainly the more practical, comfortable choice, given the huge crowds and chilly weather predicted this week.
Any meeting between Tsai and Trump or his advisers would be politically explosive, coming so close to Trump's inauguration on 20 January.
Four years ago, if you were a particularly hokey newspaper columnist with a deadline, you might have remarked upon the symmetry of Martin Luther King Day being so close to Barack Obama's inauguration.
Some talked about trying to block bridges into the city, but many of the anarchists said they wanted to be closer to the inauguration action downtown.
But closer to his inauguration, faced with the possibility of massive migration and possible loss of life as Haitians prepared to set sail in rickety boats, Clinton said that he would not immediately change the policy.
Other new presidents have waited until closer to their inaugurations before arriving.
He and three top aides spent four days in Washington for the inauguration, spending close to $20,000 in taxpayer money for rooms at a luxury hotel.
According to the U.K.s Guardian, the Obama presidential campaign, including the transition and inauguration spent close to $1 billion.
In the days leading up to Lincoln's inauguration, the Tribune headed its editorial columns each day, in large capital letters: "No compromise!/No concession to traitors!/The Constitution as it is!" Greeley attended the inauguration, sitting close to Senator Douglas, as the Tribune hailed the beginning of Lincoln's presidency.
