Congressional Staff Planned Expensive European Trip on Taxpayer's Dime Before Midterms

Working for House Speaker Mike Johnson has its perks ... you can plan a wonderful trip to Italy and France on the taxpayers' dime, and even try to visit a Ferrari factory ... but getting there is the problem.

NBC News obtained a draft itinerary for Johnson's top aide, Curt Beaulieu, and other staffers from both sides of the aisle, in which they mapped out their whole European journey they had planned for mid-October... just weeks before the midterm elections.

The report says the bipartisan staff was not only planning to visit the Ferrari factory near Bologna, Italy, but they were also going to make pit stops at high-end brand stores in either Milan or Florence before heading to France's Champagne region.

Led by Beaulieu, Johnson's senior policy and tax adviser, the contingent was also reportedly planning to visit the 173rd Airborne Mobile Brigade Combat Team in or around Vicenza, Italy.

Also on their itinerary, NBC says, was an excursion to Parma, where the group would check out the headquarters of Barilla, the Italian food company.

According to the itinerary ... the point of the 7-day trip was for Congressional staffers to interact with their European counterparts to discuss the impact of President Trump's tariffs.

But their planned trip ultimately got canceled after NBC said they reached out to Johnson's office for comment on Wednesday.

As you may know, Johnson fully supports Trump's sweeping global tariff policy taxing goods being imported into the U.S. from Europe and other countries. This should come as no surprise. The two Republicans see eye to eye on almost every issue.