BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. – Donald Trump’s presidential golf expenses have topped $a hundred and ten million in his 2 1/2 years in office – extra than $4 million extra than a conservative group’s estimate for predecessor Barack Obama’s general travel fees over two complete phrases.
Trump arrived at his golf membership in Bedminster, New Jersey, Friday night and is scheduled to remain there through Sunday afternoon. It is his 18th golf experience there because of taking office. Sunday will mark his 67th day at that path and his 199th day at a golf path he owns.
The White House on Saturday did now not reply to queries approximately Trump’s golfing activities.
Each of the president’s trips to Bedminster prices taxpayers at least $1.1 million in tour and protection fees, in keeping with a HuffPost analysis. Each journey to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida – of which Trump has made 24 – fees taxpayers $3.Four million.
Since taking workplace, Trump additionally has visited his golf motels in Los Angeles; Doral, Florida; Doonbeg, Ireland; and Turnberry, Scotland ― all at the taxpayer dime. He also has made 64 day journeys to his path in northern Virginia.
Judicial Watch, a tax-exempt conservative institution, in 2017 said that its tally of Obama’s tour costs primarily based on files received via Freedom of Information Act complaints had hit $one hundred and five.7 million. That general, even though, seems to encompass authentic journeys of Obama and former first girl Michelle Obama, as well as a few marketing campaign-associated journey that changed into in part reimbursed by way of the Democratic Party.
Trump’s $a hundred and ten.Three million general in HuffPost’s evaluation is for journey to and from golfing vacations, and does no longer encompass reliable or marketing campaign travel. It is primarily based on price elements derived from a Government Accountability Office record launched in January that distinctive 4 Mar-a-Lago trips Trump took simply weeks after entering Judicial Watch did no longer respond to a HuffPost request for remark. A review of its web website indicates that it remains focused on attacking 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, former FBI director James Comey and former special recommend Robert Mueller.
During Obama’s presidency, Trump become a frequent critic of Obama’s golf hobby. “Can you agree with that, with all the problems and problems dealing with the U.S., President Obama spent the day gambling golfing. Worse than Carter,” he wrote on Twitter in 2014.
During his campaign for president, Trump claimed that he could be too busy running to have time for any vacations at all. “I love golf, however if I had been inside the White House, I don’t suppose I’d ever see Turnberry again. I don’t suppose I’d ever see Doral again,” he instructed a rally target audience in February 2016. “I don’t ever assume I’d see something. I just need to live within the White House and work my ass off.”
Instead, Trump has been at the golf course and a half of instances as an awful lot as Obama turned into on the identical time in his presidency. And, due to the fact he insists on playing on his own courses in Florida and New Jersey so much, his golf-associated charges to taxpayers are triple that of Obama’s inside the equal term.
Most of Obama’s golfing rounds were performed at army bases inside motorcade range of the White House, which price taxpayers incredibly little. In contrast, sixty eight% of Trump’s golf days had been at his lodges that require using Air Force jets, Marine Corps helicopters, and Air Force shipping planes to move his motorcade cars. His journeys to Mar-a-Lago additionally require Coast Guard boats and ships to patrol the Atlantic Ocean and Intracoastal Waterway. On his distant places golf outings, the travel footprint is even large.
Trump’s current journey to Doonbeg, Ireland, as an instance, cost taxpayers some $three.6 million, although it worried surprisingly quick flights to and from southern England and northerly France.
