Trump's golf weekends in Florida cost American taxpayers $18m: All about prez's love for the game the disquiet over it
BySumanti Sen
Mar 09, 2025 02:14 PM IST
Donald Trump has already played golf on 13 of the 48 days he has been back in office, and the cost of his trips to Florida has reportedly been rising.
President Donald Trump is known for his love for golf, but a new report revealed that his Florida golf weekends are costing taxpayers $18 million. Trump has already played golf on 13 of the 48 days he has been back in office, and the cost of his trips to Florida has reportedly been rising.
Donald Trump's golf weekends in Florida cost American taxpayers $18m (AP/PTI) (AP03_08_2025_000005A)(AP)
Donald Trump's golf weekends in Florida cost American taxpayers $18m (AP/PTI) (AP03_08_2025_000005A)(AP)
Trump was back on the course near Mar-a-Lago on the very same day pro-Palestinian activists vandalised his Scottish golf resort. On March 8, the president arrived at the Trump International West Palm Beach just after 8:15 am following a short drive from his ‘Winter White House’ across the Intracoastal Waterway in Palm Beach proper. A HuffPost analysis said this was Trump’s 10th trip to the club since his inauguration on January 20. He has also golfed three times at Trump Doral, located east of Miami International Airport.
American taxpayers suffering due to Donald Trump’s trips?
Citing costs from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report, Huffpost revealed that Trump spending his weekends in Florida has already cost American taxpayers in excess of $18 million. The total for these trips was put at $151.5 million over four years during the president’s first term in office. The first four trips cost $3,383,250 each in 2017 dollars, an amount that will have increased now, considering the inflation.
While the military transports Trump’s motorcade vehicles using C-17 planes, the president himself flies down on Air Force One, along with his entourage – all of which are done at a hefty cost. One has to cross back onto the mainland from the barrier island to travel from Mar-a-Lago to the golf club, and hence, police boats with machine guns mounted on the bows patrol the waterway during Trump’s travels. A Coast Guard vessel is also kept stationed off the beach in the Atlantic. There are additional expenses too, including local law enforcement and explosive-sniffing dogs. Security has been tightened to a great degree after Trump survived two assassination attempts last year.
Trump undertook his first trip following a week of inauguration events in January. At the time, he flew from Washington, D.C., to North Carolina, California, and Nevada before travelling to Florida.
Donald Trump’s love for golf
North America correspondent Barbara Miller wrote in an article in the past that the president’s estranged niece, Mary Trump, who is a Democrat and critic of her uncle, had said that Trump could go anywhere in the world with all the wealth he has, but he chose to spend his time at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. The comment, made a day before Trump survived an assassination attempt by Ryan Wesley Routh at Trump National Golf Club last year, reportedly raised a laugh from the crowd.
Indeed, Trump’s love for golf is widely known. He owns over 16 courses, most of them in the United States, and also in Scotland, Ireland and the UAE. Trump’s supporters know that when he is at Mar-a-Lago, they might even catch a glimpse of him as he travels to and from the Trump International course at West Palm Beach.
Golf icon Jack Nicklaus was once quoted as saying that Trump “loves the game of golf more than he loves money.” Trump opened up about his love for the game in his 2005 book The Best Golf Advice I Ever Received, writing, “For me and millions of people—men, women, young and old around the world—golf is more than a game. It is a passion.”
Trump opened his first golf course back in 1999 – the Trump International Golf Club, West Palm Beach, Florida. His love for golf only kept soaring since then. By 2007, he already owned four courses around the US. He also went on to purchase existing golf courses and redesign them after the 2007–2008 financial crisis.
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