President Donald Trump is growing his roster of construction projects by bringing in legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus to revamp the courses at Joint Base Andrews.
Trump, 79, took an aerial tour of the courses at the Maryland base aboard Marine One on Saturday, after announcing that he was tapping Nicklaus, 85, to lead the overhaul.
“We’re doing some fix-up of the base, which it needs. We’re going to try and reinstitute the golf courses. I’m meeting with the greatest Jack Nicklaus,” the president said.
“He’s involved in trying to bring their recreational facility back,” Trump told reporters on Saturday, calling it “a great place that’s been destroyed over the years through lack of maintenance.”
He claimed, “We can—for very little money—fix it up,” without revealing the price tag of his latest indulgent makeover or who would pay Nicklaus.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The courses at Andrews, a base that houses Air Force One and sits around 15 miles from the White House, are military property.
Gerald Ford was the first president to golf there in 1974, and it later became a regular stop for President Barack Obama, according to the Associated Press.
While Trump has golfed on most weekends since his return to the White House, he has not played at Andrews.
Instead, he makes rounds at his own golf clubs in Sterling, Virginia, in Bedminster, New Jersey, and in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump has golfed on approximately 23.5 percent of the days of his second presidency at an estimated cost to taxpayers of over $100 million, according to the Donald Trump Golf Tracker.
Nicklaus, who won 18 professional majors during his career, has designed more than 400 courses with his firm, including courses owned by the Trump family, according to AP.
Trump has controversially leaned on his real estate background in his second term, demolishing the White House’s East Wing last month to make way for $300 million ballroom that he says will be funded by himself and other donors.
In his quest to bring a Mar-a-Lago flair to the White House, he has also paved over the historic Rose Garden, lavished the Oval Office with gold decorations, and added a Walk of Fame of presidential portraits in the West Wing Colonnade.
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