Since stepping back into the Oval Office earlier this year, President Donald Trump has reportedly funneled a significant amount of taxpayer money into honing his athletic skills.
After being inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, the 78-year-old leader has already made headlines for a series of bold and controversial moves. He held a turbulent White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sparked debate by rebranding the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and placed Elon Musk in charge of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump has also insisted that his victory over Democratic candidate Kamala Harris was a “mandate,” teased the release of a “suspicious” report detailing alleged assassination attempts against him, and signed off on an executive order launching a highly debated Bitcoin reserve.
Adding to the list, he’s managed to hit the golf course 13 times within his first 48 days in office.
According to a report from The Independent, this activity is draining taxpayers of a staggering amount of money.
The businessman, who has often called golf a “passion” rather than just a game, owns 12 Trump Golf properties across the U.S., along with two in Scotland, and one each in Ireland and the UAE.
As HuffPost reported, since returning to Washington, D.C., Trump has played ten rounds at Trump International West Palm Beach and three at Trump Doral.
Trump Doral, a massive 800-acre resort near Miami International Airport, and Trump International West Palm Beach, featuring a 27-hole golf course just minutes from the Atlantic, have both been regular spots for his games.
His golfing habits while in office often made headlines. Back in 2019, The Washington Post estimated that his Florida golf trips alone would cost taxpayers around $64 million. But by October 2020, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich calculated that the real cost had skyrocketed to $141 million.
At the time, Reich wrote: “Once again, Trump brags about donating his $400,000 presidential salary. Somehow he forgot to mention that his golf trips have cost taxpayers $141,000,000.”
One particularly expensive weekend in Scotland in 2018 reportedly cost taxpayers over $1 million, according to The Committee on Oversight and Accountability Democrats.
So, with Trump playing 13 rounds of golf this year, what does that mean for U.S. taxpayers?
HuffPost analyzed data from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report and claimed that the president’s golf trips may have cost American taxpayers over $18 million.
Trump and his team reportedly travel to Florida golf courses aboard Air Force One, with additional expenses going toward security measures, including law enforcement patrols and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Meanwhile, on Saturday (March 8), police confirmed they were investigating an act of vandalism at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.
According to the BBC, a pro-Palestinian group had splattered red paint on part of a building and spray-painted the words “Gaza is not for sale” on one of the greens.
A Trump Turnberry spokesperson condemned the act as “childish” and “criminal”, adding that the course is a “national treasure” and will remain “the number one beacon of luxury and excellence in the world of golf.”