President Donald Trump’s love of golf is costing U.S. taxpayers an eye-watering amount that far exceeds his first-term spending.
New analysis by HuffPost found that Trump’s beloved hobby has already cost American taxpayers nearly $71 million since his return to the Oval Office in January, and is expected to total more than $300 million by the time his second term ends.
If that figure turns out to be accurate, it would be nearly double the $151.5 million Trump spent on similar sporting outings while in office between 2017 and 2021.
“I really wish I could tell you that it would make anyone in America change their mind about him, but the corruption is so baked in, so endemic, and so ludicrous that it feels like the collective reaction will be a shrug,” conservative political consultant Rick Wilson told HuffPost.
“It’s one more example of Trump defining the presidency down. Way, way down,” Wilson continued.
HuffPost’s analysis is based on a Government Accountability Office report on the cost of four of Trump’s golf trips in 2019 and has not been updated for inflation, indicating the true expense is likely far higher.
The website didtrumpgolftoday.com claims Trump’s golf trips have already exceeded $107 million in public spending this term, with the president having spent 24.4 percent of his time in office on the green. However, figures are hard to verify as not all trips are officially confirmed by the White House.
Most of Tump’s golf trips have been made to the president’s own private course in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago residence, and have also included visits to his courses in Bedminster, New Jersey, and Aberdeen, Scotland.
Travel and security are the major expenses, with the challenges of securing Mar-a-Lago raising costs in particular.
Trump’s use of Air Force One for trips between Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Maryland, near the White House, to Palm Beach International Airport in Florida cost $273,063 per hour. In total, a four-hour round trip will cost taxpayers $1.1 million.
In addition, the president reportedly has a habit of overcharging at his hotels while traveling, forcing Secret Service agents who are there to protect him to pay as much as 300 percent more than the standard rate in order to stay nearby.
The Secret Service were forced to shell out $300,000 to stay at Mar-a-Lago alone during Trump’s first term on his 146 visits made to the luxury resort.
A Democratic House Oversight Committee report on the president’s use of public money for personal gain described his first term in office as “the world’s greatest get-rich-quick scheme.”
By comparison, President Barack Obama is estimated to have spent a total of $90 million on golf trips and family vacations combined during his eight years in office.
Trump frequently criticized Obama’s time on the green, often tweeting whenever Obama took a break that it was a bad look for a president.
“While our wonderful president was out playing golf all day, the TSA is falling apart, just like our government!,” Trump wrote in 2016.
“I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf,” he said the same year.
Trump’s lavish use of public money on his own entertainment does not stop at golf. In recent months, Trump has hosted a number of luxury private functions, including the newly-minted “Rose Garden Club” in the paved-over White House Rose Garden.
He was also seen partying it up at a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago just hours before more than 40 million Americans were set to lose access to their SNAP food assistance.
The post Trump’s Golf Habit Is Costing Taxpayers a Fortune: Report appeared first on The Daily Beast.
