Less than two months after returning to the White House, Donald Trump has reportedly played golf on 13 of the 48 days he has been back in office — and the cost of those trips to Florida has been mounting.
On the same day his prized Scottish golf resort, Turnberry, was vandalized by pro-Palestinian activists in response to his “genocidal rhetoric” regarding the future of Gaza, the president was back on the course near Mar-a-Lago.
The White House pool report on Saturday (March 8) had him arrive at the Trump International West Palm Beach just after 8:15 a.m. after a short drive from his “Winter White House” just across the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach proper.
According to an analysis by HuffPost, this is his 10th trip to the club, adjacent to Palm Beach International Airport, since his inauguration on January 20th. He has also golfed three times at Trump Doral, just east of Miami International Airport.
The outlet claims, citing costs from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report, that the president’s apparent insistence on spending his weekends (six out of seven so far) in Florida has now cost American taxpayers in excess of $18 million.
During his first term in office, the total for these trips was put at $151.5 million over four years, with the first four trips costing $3,383,250 each in 2017 dollars — a sum that given inflation will have now increased.
Trump and his entourage fly down on Air Force One while the military transports his motorcade vehicles using C-17 planes at a hefty cost.
On the ground, since traveling from Mar-a-Lago to the golf club involves crossing back onto the mainland from the barrier island, police boats with machine guns mounted on the bows patrol the waterway, while a Coast Guard vessel remains stationed off the beach in the Atlantic. Additional expenses include local law enforcement and explosive-sniffing dogs.
Security has been greatly tightened since the two assassination attempts on Trump during the 2024 campaign, the first at the Butler rally in Pennsylvania, and the second when a potential shooter was found hiding outside the very same West Palm Beach golf club.
After a week of inauguration events back in January, the president undertook his first trip, flying from Washington, D.C., to North Carolina, California, and Nevada before heading to Florida.
When asked by reporters on Air Force One whether he would be golfing upon his arrival in the Sunshine State, Trump replied: “No. I don’t think so. I’m busy.”
He was then pictured playing at the Doral course in Miami in a tweet posted by a Fox News reporter.
On Saturday, the president departed the West Palm Beach course at 1:23 p.m. with the pool reporting he returned to Mar-a-Lago at “very high speed,” arriving back at the resort club at 1:29 p.m.
