The 78-year-old is renowned for his love of golf but appears to be balancing his playing time alongside his presidential duties as he frequently boasts his latest achievements
Donald Trump is a keen golfer(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Donald Trump only returned to office in January but the insane amount of time he has spent playing golf since then would certainly suggest otherwise.
The 78-year-old is renowned for his love of the sport and famously owns 18 courses worldwide, often spending plenty of his time at some of his most well-known locations, such as Trump International Golf Club, Bedminster, and Trump National Doral. This is particularly apparent given the amount he talks about his latest achievements, most recently discussing a tournament he won whilst aboard Air Force One, much to the distaste of many.
This is all well and good in sensible amounts but when you’re the President of the United States, it’s probably wise to ensure you don’t let anything get in the way of running one of the most powerful countries in the world. In Trump’s case, however, he appears to be balancing his playing time alongside his presidential duties.
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This comes at a financial cost too, and not his own – rather American taxpayers. Since being officially sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, Trump has played golf a staggering 23 times in just 92 days in office. This means a shocking 25 percent of his second presidency has been spent on the greens. That’s according to Trump Golf Track, a website that tracks how often he plays a round.
While Trump can ultimately do what he wants as the President of the United States, it’s not a good look for the veteran politician, who has already made a number of huge moves since re-taking office such as imposing tariffs on just about every nation worldwide and overseeing mass layoffs through the help of top crony and billionaire Elon Musk.
What’s more, however, is that for almost all of his rounds of golf, Trump has opted to travel to Florida to play at one of several courses that he owns in the state. This requires a greater increase in security and travel costs which, according to a March report from The Independent, citing costs from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report, is costing American taxpayers in excess of $18 million.
Trump’s frequent golf excursions have also bumped up extra security costs(Image: Getty Images)
However, the report only factored in 13 of Trump’s visits to the golf course, meaning that this number will have no doubt significantly increased since then having almost nearly doubled his amount of playing time. If he keeps this up, Trump is sure to surpass the $151.5 million total his golf trips cost during his first first four years as President.
Last month, political analyst Chris D. Jackson went as far as saying that Trump’s trips to his resorts have cost American taxpayers some “$85 million” as he prepared for another excursion to Mar-a-Lago. “He’s now spent 38 percent of his presidency at his resorts – burning through $85 million in taxpayer cash,” he said. “Where’s the outrage from DOGE and the GOP? Hypocritical cowards.”
Tennis icon Martina Navratilova, a staunch critic of the President, also took aim at DOGE, posting on X: “At this rate trumps golf over 4 years will come to about 2 BILLION DOLLARS!!!! Of our tax money. Good to know we are cutting the waste and fraud…”
