Donald Trump loves to golf, and that is bad news for American taxpayers because when the president hits the links it does not come cheap.
And, according to estimates, Trump ran up a bill that … well, it was incredible. So, how much are we talking?
Well, in late November analysis by HuffPost had the president spending nearly $71 million of taxpayer money playing golf. That would put him on pace to spend a whopping $300 million on the game during his second term in office.
To put that in perspective, Trump spent an estimated $151.5 million golfing during his first term, so he is on pace to double that figure.
“I really wish I could tell you that it would make anyone in America change their mind about him, but the corruption is so backed in, so endemic, and so ludicrous that it feels like the collective reaction will be a shrug,” Republican consultant Rick Wilson said per HuffPost. “It’s one more example of Trump defining the presidency down. Way, way down.”
HuffPost’s early December estimate was actually conservative compared to the website DidTrumpGoldToday.com. The site has tracked the president’s trips since he returned to office, and it has recorded him golfing 79 days — 22.6% of his time since returning to office — with a whopping cost to taxpayers of $110,600,000.
The sites estimate the taxpayer cost by using figures from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report that examined Trump’s first four trips to Mar-a-Lago during his first administration. You can see the report, here. It calculated that each of those trips cost $3,383,250, and that was based on 2017 dollars meaning that the actual cost today is likely higher than the estimate.
The costs involved with him golfing in Florida include flying in on Air Force One. Also, per HuffPost, the military flies the vehicles for his motorcade in on C-17s each time he makes the trip. Also, because Mar-a-Lago, where Trump stays while he plays at his courses, is on the water, police boats with machine guns and a Coast Guard vessel have to be called in to patrol.
The site said additional costs included law enforcement and bomb sniffing dogs.