Since Donald Trump returned to the White House last month, he’s already spent $10.7 million in taxpayer money on golf trips. This cost, which is expected to keep adding up every weekend Trump plays golf, has mostly gone unnoticed by his “Department of Government Efficiency,” the group created to spot wasteful spending.
While the department focuses on smaller contracts and grants, they haven’t looked at the large expenses for Trump’s golf trips. Even Elon Musk, known for his “high-IQ” team, hasn’t mentioned the golf costs despite scouring the federal budget for things they don’t like or understand. A quick search on Musk’s social media platform, previously Twitter, found no mention of “golf.”
When the White House was reached for comments, no one responded about the golf trips. Trump has played golf every weekend since January 20, visiting his own properties on nine of his first 30 days in office.
Jordan Libowitz from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said, “It’s clear that when the Trump administration considers wasteful spending, it doesn’t count the money that ends up in the president’s pocket. By visiting his own businesses so often, Trump is directing taxpayer money toward them.”
The $10.7 million figure comes from a 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that looked at Trump’s golf trips to Mar-a-Lago, his country club in Palm Beach, Florida, during his first term. Each trip cost roughly $3.4 million, with about a third of that being the cost of flying Air Force One. Other expenses included transporting vehicles like the presidential limousines, and paying the Coast Guard for security. Those numbers are from 2017, so the cost is likely higher today.
In total, Trump’s golf trips during his first term added up to $152 million over four years, for 293 days of golf at his own resorts. Since returning to office in his second term, Trump has golfed every weekend. Three of the trips have been to Mar-a-Lago, and one trip to Doral, Florida, included a stop in New Orleans for the Super Bowl, which reduced the cost for that trip by about $546,000.
Libowitz said, “It would be one thing if Trump went to Camp David to play golf, but it’s hard to see this as anything other than using the presidency to support his businesses.”
As noted by The Huffington Post, Trump’s allies spent years criticizing President Joe Biden for his weekend trips to Delaware, calling them wasteful. However, the cost of Biden’s trips was much lower than Trump’s. Most of the time, Biden flew on Marine One, which cost around $150,000 per trip.
