Taxpayers’ Tab for Donald Trump’s Golf Habit Crosses $100 Million | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s golf behavior has now price taxpayers a minimum of $101.2 million in journey and safety bills since his return to workplace, a determine that’s two-thirds of his first-term golf whole and has him on observe to spend $300 million by the tip of his second time period, in accordance with a HuffPost evaluation.

Trump’s arrival at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday morning marks his 56th go to there since his 2025 inauguration and his a hundred and tenth day on a golf course that he owns — that means he has performed golf on greater than one-quarter of his days since returning to the presidency.

“At a time when gas prices are spiking and Americans across the country find themselves in an ever-worsening affordability crisis, the president has burned through over $100 million in taxpayer money in order to make promotional appearances at his golf courses and hobnob with millionaires and billionaires,” stated Jordan Libowitz with the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington watchdog group. “If his goal were to help struggling Americans out, one thing he could try is stop spending their money going to his golf courses.”

Trump wanted two full years to hit the $100 million mark in his first time period, throughout which he performed golf a complete of 293 days at his personal programs at a price to taxpayers of $151.5 million. HuffPost has based mostly its figures for transportation and safety for Trump’s golf journeys on a report back to Congress throughout his first time period in workplace.

In this second time period, Trump has made 17 journeys completely to his Mar-a-Lago nation membership residence in Palm Beach, which is near his programs in West Palm Beach and Jupiter. He has made seven extra journeys to Mar-a-Lago that included a minimum of one extra cease. Last weekend, for instance, Trump flew from Florida to Memphis for a speech earlier than returning to Washington.

He has made eight journeys to his course in Bedminster, New Jersey, at a price of $1.1 million every and 5 to his resort in Doral, Florida, which price $2.7 million every.

Of his common golf locations, Mar-a-Lago is by far the most costly for him to go to, at $3.4 million a visit, due to the expense of patrolling each the Atlantic Ocean off the Palm Beach coast, in addition to the Intracoastal Waterway that separates the barrier island from the mainland. When Trump is current, a Coast Guard ship is stationed offshore, and smaller legislation enforcement vessels with weapons mounted on their bows are within the Intracoastal.

His costliest journey so far has been the $9.7 million one he took to his resorts in Scotland final summer season, which included participation within the grand opening of a brand new course at his Aberdeen property — an occasion for his for-profit enterprise that the White House’s authorities employees helped promote.

In latest weeks, the White House has begun categorizing Trump’s golf outings as “executive time.” That phrase additionally seems in his public schedule nearly day by day.

When requested if that signifies that Trump is taking part in some type of leisure exercise in every of these situations, the White House press workplace responded with the unsigned assertion: “Executive time refers to executive time.”

HuffPost’s evaluation makes use of methodology and figures from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report on Trump’s golf journeys early in his first time period. That report discovered that 4 journeys to Mar-a-Lago in early 2017 price taxpayers $13.6 million, after which broke down that whole into elements like extra safety bills, the prices to fly Air Force One, and the necessity to transport motorcade automobiles utilizing costly C-17 cargo planes.

In his second time period, the key drivers of the excessive price for the president’s interest ― the flights on Air Force One, the necessity for the Air Force C-17 transports, the salaries for these defending the president ― haven’t diminished. Indeed, they’ve seemingly elevated.

Because the salaries for navy service members and legislation enforcement officers usually haven’t saved tempo with the patron value index, HuffPost didn’t inflate the figures to present {dollars}. The precise prices and totals, nonetheless, are actually larger than HuffPost’s unadjusted 2019 numbers.

Prior to his election in 2016, Trump spent years criticizing former President Barack Obama’s golf outings, and through his first marketing campaign, he promised he could be too busy to play golf. Then, following his 2020 election loss and failed coup try, Trump repeatedly criticized his successor, Joe Biden, for his frequent weekend journeys to his residence in Delaware.

But Obama’s taxpayer golf tab was a small fraction of Trump’s as a result of Obama primarily performed the course at Joint Base Andrews, a brief motorcade experience from the White House. And Biden’s journeys residence used both the smaller model of Air Force One or a Marine One helicopter. Both price far much less to function than the $273,063 per hour the GAO discovered it prices to fly the bigger, modified Boeing 747 that Trump takes on his Florida golf journeys.