Taxpayers have paid at least $101.2 million for President Trump’s golf trips since he returned to office. That is roughly two-thirds of his entire first-term golf spending total, and puts him on track to spend around $300 million by the end of his second term, according to a recent analysis.
According to HuffPost, Trump has visited his West Palm Beach course 56 times and spent 110 days on one of his golf courses since his 2025 inauguration. That means he has played golf on more than one in four days since taking office. During his first term, it took him two full years to reach the $100 million mark, and he played golf a total of 293 days at a total cost of $151.5 million to taxpayers.
The main costs behind these trips include flights on Air Force One, Air Force C-17 transports to move motorcade vehicles, and salaries for his security detail. Based on a report from his first term, these costs have likely gone up since then, and the real figures are probably even higher than current estimates.
The president’s golf spending raises serious concerns at a time when many Americans are struggling financially
Jordan Libowitz of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) was direct about the issue. He said that “at a time when gas prices are spiking and Americans are facing an ever-worsening affordability crisis, the president has burned through over $100 million in taxpayer money” to make appearances at his golf courses and “hobnob with millionaires and billionaires.”
Trump has also made headlines for remarks he made to a room full of investors that raised eyebrows. Libowitz added that “if the president’s goal were to help struggling Americans, one thing he could try is to stop spending their money going to his golf courses.”
Of all his regular golf destinations, Mar-a-Lago is the most expensive to visit at $3.4 million per trip. This is mainly due to the heavy security required around the Palm Beach coastline and the Intracoastal Waterway. Other trips include eight visits to his Bedminster, New Jersey course at $1.1 million each, and five visits to his Doral, Florida resort at $2.7 million each.
His most expensive trip so far was a $9.7 million visit to his Scotland resorts, which included the opening of a new course at his Aberdeen property, an event that White House government staff helped promote.
In recent weeks, the White House has been listing Trump’s golf outings as “executive time” on his public schedule. When asked whether this referred to leisure activity, the press office gave this response: “Executive time refers to executive time.”
Before his 2016 election, Trump spent years criticizing former President Barack Obama for playing golf, and even promised he would be too busy to play himself. He also criticised his successor Joe Biden for frequent weekend trips to Delaware. However, Obama’s golf costs were a small fraction of Trump’s because Obama mostly played at Joint Base Andrews, just a short drive from the White House.
Biden’s trips home used either a smaller version of Air Force One or a Marine One helicopter, both far cheaper to operate than the large Boeing 747 Trump uses for his Florida trips, which the Government Accountability Office found costs $273,063 per hour to fly.
Meanwhile, Trump’s foreign policy moves have also drawn attention, including ongoing Iran nuclear deal negotiations that took a violent turn when Iran struck a Saudi base and sent ten American troops to the hospital.
Published: Mar 30, 2026 11:30 am