Ouch.
When asked by one of his fellow golfers at The Trump Organization's Bedminster Golf Course in New Jersey why he took so many trips to the green, Trump replied that the presidential palace was a "real dump." Perhaps it is, by the standards of a multi-billionaire who owns 17 golf courses — err, owned 17 golf courses, before he turned over control to his sons Eric and Donald Jr.
In November, Trump told Bedminster golfers that they are his "real group. You are the special people. I see all of you. I recognize, like, 100 percent of you, just about."
He followed that with an open invitation for everyone present to attended his Cabinet interviews. "We're doing a lot of interviews tomorrow — generals, dictators, we have everything," Trump said in a tape obtained by Politico. "You may wanna come around. It'll be fun. We're really working tomorrow. We have meetings every 15, 20 minutes with different people that will form our government."
Trump is a golf enthusiast even by the standards of US presidents, old dudes and billionaires. In the same article Sports Illustrated called him "easily the best golfer who has ever lived in the White House." So, that's something?
Since taking office six months and 10 days ago, Trump has played golf at least 19 times – possibly more, as the White House does not disclose when Trump does or doesn't golf during his visits to Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster. He's visited those two courses over 40 times – about 20 percent of his days in office were spent at one or the other.
Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2014
We pay for Obama's travel so he can fundraise millions so Democrats can run on lies. Then we pay for his golf.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2014
"My initial reaction to the game [of golf] was that I loved the competition," Trump once told Golf.com. "But as you get older and wiser and richer, you realize it's not only about the competition, it's about the beauty of it, and that's what has kept me attracted me to the game more than anything: walking down all those beautiful fairways."
According to Trump Golf Count, the president's love for the game has cost the taxpayer over $55 million to date, as ferrying him from the White House to the course and back is a hugely elaborate and expensive procedure. By comparison, the United States spent $50 million on water conservation and drought prevention in the American West in 2015.
