But that presidential rest and recreation comes with a cost. A new report from the Government Accountability Office says four such trips early on in Trump's presidency cost taxpayers $13.6 million, or some $3.4 million each.
FILE - In this March 19, 2017 file photo, U.S. Coast Guard patrol Lake Worth Lagoon as President Donald Trump returns to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. It’s widely estimated that each trip to the resort costs taxpayers $3 million, based on a government study of the cost of a 2013 trip to Florida by President Barack Obama.
Former President Donald Trump's frequent visits to his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club reportedly cost taxpayers $2.4 million.
By this May 25, the president had visited a Trump golf course 266 times, CNN reported. And Sept. 5 marked Trump's 295th visit to one of his golf properties, according to CNN's Jim Sciutto. Sophie Germain has kept track of the president's golfing and its costs at the Trump Golf Count site since his 2017 inauguration.
Former President Donald Trump 's frequent visits to his New Jersey golf resort during his tenure in the White House cost taxpayers more than $2 million—with Trump spending a total of 99 days at the Bedminster club while serving as commander in chief.
Trump regularly frequented the club as an escape from the White House, with the number of his visits to the New Jersey property only coming in behind his trips to his residence at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida . The news site obtained the information through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Trump's frequent trips to his golf resorts drew substantial scrutiny and criticism—particularly because the former president frequently criticized his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, for golfing while serving as president. During his 2016 campaign, Trump claimed he would not have time to play golf if he won the presidency.
So far Trump’s golf trips have cost at least $105 million. Trump’s trips to his golf courses are very expensive and much more than Obama’s since Trump’s have been more frequent and usually requires Air Force One and all the accompanying security arraignments.
The GAO report estimated that just four of Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago cost: 1 $13.6 million 2 Do not “capture all of the total expenditures by the government” 3 Do not “include certain classified cost information” 4 $60,000 in expenses paid to Mar-a-Lago (there have been 24 so far) 5 Were not able to identify meals and incidental expenses, if any, that may have been incurred at the Mar-a-Lago club
106 times Trump’s $400,000 salary over 8 years combined (which he is donating back to the government) Almost twice the $190 million annual cost for the Peace Corps. $25 million more than the $315 million annual cost for the General Accounting Office.
Trump’s trips to his golf courses are very expensive and much more than Obama’s since Trump’s have been more frequent and usually requires Air Force One and all the accompanying security arraignments.
The $151.5 million total means that Trump has now spent the equivalent of 379 years of presidential salary — which he and his supporters frequently boast that he does not take — playing golf. The White House has refused to provide information about how much Trump’s golf trips cost, and, in fact, declines to answer most questions about his golf ...
Trump has already played golf on his own properties 289 times since taking office in January 2017, although he claimed during his 2016 campaign that he would not have time for a vacation at all. “I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off,” he said in February 2016. Advertisement.
Trump has also made 23 trips to his course in Bedminster, New Jersey, at a cost of $1.1 million each as well as trips to his courses in Palos Verdes, California; Doral, Florida; Turnberry, Scotland; and Doonbeg, Ireland.
The trip to Scotland cost taxpayers an extra $3 million over what it would have cost for Trump to remain in London an extra two days before flying to Helsinki, Finland, for his meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. A Mar-a-Lago visit over Thanksgiving 2019 cost taxpayers an additional $5.3 million because of all the extra expenses ...
Content loading... Donald Trump has arrived at his Palm Beach, Florida, resort for the 31st golf vacation there of his presidency, raising the taxpayer-funded travel and security total ...
A Mar-a-Lago visit over Thanksgiving 2019 cost taxpayers an additional $5.3 million because of all the extra expenses of flying both modified Boeing 747s across the Atlantic and back necessitated by Trump’s decision to visit Afghanistan from Florida, rather than leaving from Washington, D.C. The $151.5 million total means ...
By this May 25, the president had visited a Trump golf course 266 times, CNN reported.
Trump has played golf during 24 of 96 trips to Bedminster since the beginning of his presidency, according to a table maintained by TrumpGolfCount.com. But Kessler questioned the practice of attributing travel costs for the president and his support staff exclusively to golf.
The rate was $165,000 per hour in 2019, according to the Pentagon, as reported by USA TODAY. Post reporter Philip Bump reported Trump made 19 trips to Mar-a-Lago between January 2017 and February 2019.
Using the same data for a February 2019 report, the Washington Post estimated Trump's trips to Mar-a-Lago alone cost the U.S. taxpayer approximately $64 million during his first two years in office. Roughly $10.6 million was spent on operating costs for government aircraft and boats and $3 million on temporary duty costs including transportation, ...
In fiscal year 2020, the mission reimbursable rate for Air Force One — including fuel, flight consumables, aircraft overhaul and engine overhaul — cost $176,393 per hour, according to the U.S. Air Force. The rate was $165,000 per hour in 2019, according to the Pentagon, as reported by USA TODAY.
According to the Washington Post, Trump has taken some 19 trips to Mar-a-Lago during his presidency so far. If the average cost of $3.4 million for the first four trips is extrapolated, that means the president's vacations have cost taxpayers at least $64.6 million.
President Obama came under criticism from some conservatives and by Trump for flights he took to his home state of Hawaii as well as to vacation spots such as Martha's Vineyard. Before entering politics, Trump often tweeted criticisms about the high cost of presidential travel. According to the Washington Post, ...
The congressional watchdog's report is the first official accounting of Trump's travel costs. The report also found that the Secret Service spent nearly $400,000 protecting Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric on trips they took in January and February 2017.
Trump's frequent visits to Mar-a-Lago, other Trump-branded golf courses and his hotel in Washington, D.C., have been criticized as serving as taxpayer-funded advertising for his business interests. The GAO report was requested by congressional Democrats.
Sen. John Barrasso, a Wyoming Republican, asked the GAO to probe the Obama outing, and its report finally came out last fall. The GAO's bottom line for that trip, not including regular White House personnel costs as well as some classified expenses, was $3.6 million.
Those costs also aren't fully included in Judicial Watch's $96 million total for Obama. More clarity is coming, eventually.
Neither the Secret Service, which protects the president, nor the Department of Defense, which transports presidential vehicles from place to place, has provided a tally of any Mar-a-Lago trip, although a government office is working up estimates that will eventually become public.