Taxpayers have spent nearly $71 million on President Donald Trump’s golf excursions since he began his second term in January, according to a Huffington Post analysis. At this rate, the costs could exceed $300 million in Trump’s second term.
So far this year, the president has taken 16 golfing trips, including those to his country club near his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Each country club trip costs $3.4 million in travel and security expenses, HuffPost reported.
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If Trump makes just two trips to Mar-a-Lago in December — compared to his four in November — his golf expenses will top $75 million for the year.
Costs are far exceeding those from Trump’s first term. During those four years, the analysis found, taxpayers covered $151.5 million in golf-related travel and security expenditures.
The White House did not comment on the HuffPost report. In a call Thursday with U.S. service members, Trump boasted about his golfing prowess.
“Look, I know a lot about golf,” he said. “I’ve won 38 club championships and I don’t get to practice much.”
Methodology
According to HuffPost, the findings were based on a 2019 Government Accountability report on the president’s trips to Mar-a-Lago during his first term. The news outlet noted that the majority of the expenses came from paying military service members and law enforcement officers. Those amounts were not inflated to present dollars, meaning the actual total cost is most likely higher than the report states.
Mar-a-Lago trips reportedly present unique security challenges, as the estate is located on an island between a major intracoastal passageway and the Atlantic Ocean. When the president travels to the nearby golf course, small vessels with mounted machine guns and Coast Guard ships survey the area.
The single largest expense comes from the use of Air Force One, which reportedly costs more than $273,000 per hour to fly, with a four-hour roundtrip costing American more than $1 million.
The president’s trips to Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey are far less costly because the nearby airport cannot accommodate the modified Boeing 747 that normally serves as Air Force One, requiring him to instead use a smaller plane or a Marine One helicopter for travel.
Findings spark backlash
Critics of Trump, including Republican political consultant Rick Wilson, reacted to the findings with resigned outrage.
“I really wish I could tell you that it would make anyone in America change their mind about him,” Wilson told HuffPost, “but the corruption is so baked in, so endemic, and so ludicrous that it feels like the collective reaction will be a shrug,” Wilson told the Huffington Post.
Trump criticized Obama’s frequent golfing
Trump criticized former President Barack Obama’s frequent golfing in early 2016. As a candidate, Trump said he would likely not have the time to golf at his courses in Scotland and Florida.
“I love golf, but if I were in the White House, I don’t think I’d ever see Turnberry again,” Trump said in February 2016. “I don’t think I’d ever see Doral again. I don’t ever think I’d see anything. I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off.”
Trump reportedly golfed 293 times at his courses during his first term.
Modern presidential comparison
During Obama’s eight years in office, taxpayers paid an estimated $85 million to $90 million for travel and security-related expenses for family vacations and his own golf outings, according to the conservative group Judicial Watch. Obama reportedly played 333 rounds of golf total during his two terms.
By contrast, President George W. Bush played 24 rounds, according to presidential schedules compiled by the late Mark Knoller, who covered the White House for CBS News.
President Joe Biden rarely played golf during his four years in office.
Obama most often hit the links at Joint Base Andrews near Washington — excursions that were relatively inexpensive in terms of travel and security expenses.
Trump has never golfed on that course, but took an aerial tour of it recently aboard Marine One at an estimated cost of $115,000.
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President Woodrow Wilson reportedly used golf as a means for stress relief, even playing a round with his wife on the morning he declared war on Germany.
Historical context
Woodrow Wilson holds the record for most golf outings as president. In about 6 ½ years before he suffered a debilitating stroke, he played more than 1,200 rounds, according to Essential Golf.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower is credited with making golf more widely accessible to average Americans and reportedly golfed about 800 times during his time in office.
