President Donald Trump’s newest estimated golf tab — the amount of money billed to taxpayers during his second term — was reported Saturday by HuffPost and it is a doozy.
Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20, and per the site, he has run up more than $26 million in taxpayer funded golf trips since.
The actual total cost, per HuffPost, is currently $26,127,531. To put that in perspective, the president spent $151.5 million playing golf during his entire first term. So, he is on pace to blow away that total in his second term.
It is no secret that Trump loves to golf. HuffPost reported that the president played his golf course in West Palm Beach on Saturday. That, according to the site, was the 14th day that Trump has golfed there since taking office in January, and the 18th day golf in total during his second term.
What might be his dirty little secret on the links though, is how he finds success. Earlier this month, Trump claimed yet another club championship, but famed author Rick Reilly claims Trump cheats to win on the links.
Reilly shared a screen shot of the president’s recent club championship announcement on X and responded.
“REALLY? THAT’S AMAZING, SIR!” Reilly wrote. “CONGRATS TO YOU, THE CADDIES WHO KICK YOUR BALL OUT OF THE ROUGH, THE STOOLIES WHO LET YOU WIN OR GET THROWN OUT OF THE CLUB, THE SPINELESS PRO AT YOUR CLUB WHO DOESN’T WANT TO GET FIRED, AND THE 100S OF FEET OF GIMMIES YOU GIVE YOURSELF! BRAVO!”
It was the third consecutive club championship that the 78-year-old Trump has claimed which is pretty amazing. Unless, of course, you believe Reilly’s assertions. The author has written a book entitled “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.” He says he has golfed with Trump, and he has made a habit of ringing the alarm each time the president claims another title.
“He’s never won a championship at a course he doesn’t own and operate,” Reilly said after Trump claimed he won the title last year. “He’s played in Pebble Beach. He’s played in the Tahoe one, where there are rules and judges and cameras. And in those, he’s never finished in the top half. So, he wins when anybody who disagrees that he won is out of the club. That’s how he gets it.”
Reilly elaborated further, claiming that Trump gets a “turbo-charged golf cart” so that he can get ahead of the competition and put some distance between him and them, giving him “time to cheat.”
Reilly also appeared on CNN last year where he laid into Trump again.
“He cheats like a mafia accountant,” he reportedly said. “He cheats crazy. He cheats whether you’re watching or not. He cheats whether you like it or not. He kicks the ball out of the rough so many times the caddies call him Pelé.
For those more concerned about how much it costs Americans for the president to play, the figures are from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report that examined Trump’s first four trips to Mar-a-Lago during his first administration. You can see the report, here. It calculated that each of those trips cost $3,383,250, and that was based on 2017 dollars meaning that the actual cost today is likely higher than the estimate.
The costs involved with him golfing in Florida include flying in on Air Force One. Also, per the site, the military flies the vehicles for his motorcade in on C-17s each time he makes the trip. Also, because Mar-a-Lago, where Trump stays while he plays at his courses, is on the water, police boats with machine guns and a Coast Guard vessel have to be called in to patrol. The site said additional costs included law enforcement and bomb sniffing dogs.
