Donald Trump began Aug. 18 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., representing the 224th time the 45th President has visited one of his 17 golf clubs (and, for most of them, presumably played some golf) since becoming President on Jan. 20, 2017. He has now paid 226 visits to any golf course as President.
Trump arrived at the New Jersey club on Aug. 10 for an extended vacation from the White House, which is receiving a fresh coat of external paint. Sunday marked the final day of his vacation. Trump prefers to play golf in the mornings at Trump National Bedminster, while the Secret Service follows around Trump in golf carts that, so far, have cost American taxpayers nearly $550,000 to use.
It's unclear who Trump played with on Sunday. However, Golfweek reports Trump played on Aug. 17 with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley and NBC Sports president Pete Bevacqua.
When Trump stays at his Bedminster club, he has quarters off the club's pool, specially fitted for his stay.
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Trump ended 2017 with 91 golf course visits and was just shy of 100 visits in Year 1 as President. In his second year as President, Trump played golf 76 times. All but two rounds of golf has been at his clubs, playing once in Japan in Nov. 2017 with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Japanese star pro Hideki Matsuyama, then playing with Abe again in May 2019.
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The White House doesn't typically acknowledge Trump was even playing golf. That is commonplace policy, particularly when Trump isn't playing with celebrities or pro golfers or doesn't have something to flaunt. Typically, the White House press pool indicates when Trump arrives at his golf clubs, then they are held in a holding location until Trump is done and moves to his next location.
However, if he's going to the golf club for about 4-5 hours, you can be pretty sure he's playing golf. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has asked the White House to provide the names of Trump's golf partners, as well for his clubs to provide visitor logs to get a sense of when Trump has played golf and with whom.
The President is certainly entitled to some leisure time, and golf has been an outlet for most Commanders-in-Chief dating back to the early 20th century. However, the reluctance to even acknowledge that this President plays golf conflicts with his almost relentless criticism of his predecessor, Barack Obama, who played an estimated 333 rounds of golf as President.
