A top aide to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had planned a weeklong European trip packed with luxury stops, until reporters started asking questions.
Curt Beaulieu, a senior policy and tax adviser to the speaker, had been authorized to lead a staff delegation to Italy and France in late October, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing a draft itinerary emailed to U.S. Embassy personnel in Rome and Paris. Johnson’s office told the outlet the trip had been called off after NBC inquired about the plans.
The proposed schedule had the group stopping at a Ferrari factory near Bologna and a Barilla pasta and cheese processor in Parma before visiting luxury goods companies in Milan or Florence. From there, the delegation would head to France for excursions to the Champagne region and a meeting at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The planning memo described the outing as a fact-finding mission on trade policy.
“The purpose of the trip is to engage European and U.S. government and industry officials related to the impact of U.S. tariffs and taxes,” the memo read.
The final leg of the draft directed the group to “Fly to Paris where we will do day trips to champagne region and OECD to discuss trade and taxes.”
Johnson’s office defended the practice of sending aides overseas, but NBC News noted that the trip was canceled after it asked about the itinerary.
“Senior congressional staff of both parties routinely lead staff delegations to allied countries and trading partners for parliamentary and private sector engagements to strengthen the working relationships between our countries and their key industries,” the office said in a statement.
The speaker’s office added that staff trip schedules often shift right up until departure and that this one hadn’t been finalized. It pointed to an unspecified conflict as the reason for the cancellation and did not directly address who would have paid for the trip. The email listed no outside sponsor.
The trip would have taken place roughly two weeks before the midterm elections, with affordability and President Donald Trump’s tariffs among the top issues on the ballot, NBC News noted. Trump threatened this summer to slap a 100 percent tariff on French wine and Champagne unless France scrapped its tax on American tech firms, NBC News added.
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