Donald Trump is in Scotland for the weekend and beyond on what will be a five-day trip filled with golf that will come at an incredible cost to U.S. taxpayers.
According to HuffPost, the president’s trip, which it said will feature him participating in a marketing photo opportunity at his golf resort in Aberdeen, will cost taxpayers “at least $10 million.”
Trump is currently visiting his Turnberry resort where he is expected to golf on Saturday. He is then expected to head to Aberdeenshire to open the new 18-hole golf course.
HuffPost reported that the trip is not related to a planned visit to the United Kingdom in September, “making it by far the most expensive golf vacation” for Trump in either of his terms.
“He’s using the presidency to market his golf courses,” Richard Painter, the top ethics lawyer in George W. Bush’s second-term Whtie House told HuffPost. “At the taxpayer’s expense, he’s promoting himself.”
“We’ve reached a point where the Oval Office is an extension of the Trump Organization, and American taxpayers are footing the bill,” Jordan Libowitz, of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, in Washington, told HuffPost. “A president should not be spending time trying to make money in a foreign country while in office, but if they do, at the very least they could pick up the tab for their business trips.”
HuffPost said it asked the White House if Trump planned to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for the trip, but the White House did not respond.
Meanwhile, Trump posted on Truth Social Friday, “I’m in Scotland now. Many meetings planned!!!”
HuffPost said the president has said he does plan to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer while there.
This comes as Trump has already piled up an incredible estimated golf tab during his second term.
According to the website, DidTrumpGolfToday.com which tracks the president’s time on the links, he last hit the course on July 19 and July 20.
That pushed him up to 43 days of golf, per the site, out of his first 184 days in office. That means the president has played golf on 23.4% of the days thus far in his second term heading into his Scotland stay.
But that is not the big number.
The big number is the estimated tax payer cost for Trump’s trips thus far, and his most recent trips pushed him to another milestone in that department. Per the site, the president has now spent an estimated $60,200,000 golfing since Jan. 20.
Yes, that is $60 million.
And that’s not counting the $600,000 revealed last week that the Secret Service is spending on golf carts and portable toilets for Bedminster. The Independent reported that the agency “signed a pair of definitive contracts with Associate Golf Car Service of Poughkeepsie, New York and Restroom Resources LLC of Wrightstown, New Jersey,” per federal records.
The portable toilets may be a wise investment considering the health department recently deemed eating at the course an “unacceptable risk.”
The Secret Service will reportedly shell out $80,385 for those with the contract running through May 31, 2026. The Independent said there is a “three-year renewal option, for a potential of $333,801.” The site reported that the golf cart rental runs through June 2, 2026, and is “worth a potential of $550,930.”
“The U.S. Secret Service has contracts in place for portable restrooms and golf cart rentals to support the protective operations in Bedminster, New Jersey,” the Secret Service told The Independent. “The golf carts are used by personnel in club facilities; however, additional restrooms are needed to support the number of personnel onsite. These rentals also allow for restroom access in additional locations on club property and when club facilities are closed such as after business hours.”
You can read more about the deal at The Independent, here.
And, yes, while Trump mostly golfs at his properties, the American taxpayer still foots the bill for the costs for him to play there.
Trump spent an estimated $151.5 million of taxpayer money golfing across his first term so he is well on his way to blowing that total out of the water during this second term.
Those are big numbers. Lot of millions spent hitting a little white ball. Which brings the obvious question of just how much it costs for the president to play a round of golf.
Well, for those concerned about how much it costs Americans for the president to play, the figures are 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 the site, 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.
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