President Donald Trump made playing golf a common part of his one-term presidency. He's spent a portion of his day at one of his 17 owned-or-operated golf properties on approximately 20 percent of the days of his term.
All of those visits to his golf clubs -- be they Trump National in Bedminster, N.J.; Trump National D.C. in Ashburn, Va.; or Trump International Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. -- not only increased the Trump golf count but also increasde the bill to the American taxpayer.
Every time Trump has gone to one of his golf clubs as President, regardless of him playing golf or not, the taxpayer has been required to pay to transport and protect him.
Even when he leaves office on Jan. 20, 2021, Donald Trump's golf rounds are going to cost American taxpayers for years to come.
How President Donald Trump's future golf rounds will cost taxpayers
During his term, Donald Trump's golf rounds have cost an estimated $145 million to taxpayers, and with a month to go in his term, that cost will almost certainly increase. That's an estimate based on a variety of factors, and we can't give you an exact cost for each round, but we can estimate the cost per round, which is driven by Secret Service usage, transportation costs for motorcades and Air Force One, as well potential Coast Guard fees.
Even when Trump is no longer President, he'll continue to have a Secret Service detail that will protect him for the rest of his life, along with his wife. His son, Barron, will be protected until he is 16 years old, while Trump's adult children will no longer be protected at the end of his term.
This means the Secret Service will continue to protect Trump when he plays golf. It won't be to quite the same extent he is protected as the current President, but it will still cost the American taxpayer substantial money.
As President, Trump's golf rounds cost the American taxpayer approximately $600,000 on average. That cost will go down substantially once he leaves office.
The most expensive rounds Trump plays are in Florida, followed by at Trump National Washington, D.C., in northern Virginia, then at Trump National Bedminster in New Jersey. The Florida and D.C.-area clubs are the most expensive because those properties are on water, meaning the Coast Guard has to offer support to protect the President. While the level of protection will change, Trump's smaller Secret Service detail will still likely need to rent golf carts from a third party to support their detail.
We know the Secret Service has racked up $765,000 in golf cart rental bills with contracts with private providers (Trump is NOT making money on those carts), with rolling contracts.
Trump won't have access to a plane that qualifies as Air Force One, whose operational costs were a huge portion of the cost of President Trump playing golf. The same is true for Presidential ground transportation.
