President Donald Trump spends a lot of time on his private golf courses. While he's spent some portion of nearly 220 days of his presidency (and counting) on the ground of his clubs, he's spent approximately 90 percent of those days playing golf in some fashion.
Almost all of his rounds of golf have come at three of his clubs: Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C. in northern Virginia, and at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla.
And every time Trump is on the grounds of one of his private clubs -- whether he plays golf or not -- the Secret Service has to keep him safe. Part of protecting the President entails riding around on golf carts to make sure no one who shouldn't be near the Commander-in-Chief gets anywhere near him.
Through the end of 2018, the Secret Service had already spent nearly $370,000 on golf carts to keep the President safe at his golf clubs. With those contracts expiring in spring 2019, the Secret Service needed two new contracts for leasing golf carts. Based on reporting from Quartz and publicly available data from USASpending.gov, the Secret Service has signed contracts through Dec. 1, 2019 which total $173,550.
One contract, with Associates Golf Car Services, Inc., of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., runs from May 1, 2019 through Oct. 31, 2019, in the value of $95,250, to protect Trump when he is at Trump National in New Jersey and potentially elsewhere.
The other contract is with Horizon Distributors, Inc. of Phoenix, Ariz. for a broader "Trump National golf courses" contract. It runs July 30, 2019 through Dec. 1, 2019, in the amount of $78,300.
The total of how much the Secret Service has spent on golf carts for Donald Trump through Trump's first two-plus years in office is $541,425. Based on current projections, the Secret Service will spend approximately $750,000 on golf carts in Trump's four-year term. You could expect more expenditure in a second term given Trump would likely be a lame-duck president in the second half of his hypothetical final term, inviting more trips to the golf course.
By statute, President Trump is not allowed and does not profit from these cart rentals by the Secret Service.
