No one would deny a president rest and recreation. However, it’s also fair to consider this public servant’s work/play balance, and ask how much we, as taxpayers, pay for him to have his fun and to keep him safe while he’s doing it. For a president who says his is the “most transparent” administration in history, this picture sure is cloudy.
And then there’s the hypocrisy of his golf habit. Trump repeatedly bashed his predecessor’s penchant for the links, claiming he would take a different approach as President. On October 2014, Trump tweeted, “Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the US, President Barack Obama spent the day playing golf.” In July 2015, Trump said, “I would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done. I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off.”
Flash forward three years and Donald Trump has spent at least 252 days at a Trump golf club, and 333 days at a Trump property since inauguration, according to CNN’s count at the end of 2019. At this rate, Trump is on track to exceed Obama’s record.
Trump’s golf habit is also an example of the kind of self-dealing that is unprecedented among US presidents. Trump plays almost exclusively on courses that he owns. Thanks to this arrangement, the federal government, which he runs, pays the golf course corporations that he owns, for all the goods and services required every time he tees off. In the first five months of his presidency, the Secret Service paid more than $250,000 to President Trump’s private businesses, according to the Washington Post, which cited records obtained by the nonprofit organization Property of the People.
The Trump practice that finds federal money flowing into his businesses around the country is what the Founders had in mind when they banned foreign and domestic “emoluments” in the Constitution. The founders gave the president a salary and expected him to forgo all other compensation from either foreign entities or the US government. And while Trump has donated his paycheck, that doesn’t give him free rein to funnel federal money to his businesses.
Trump and his family, accustomed to living large, don’t seem to scrimp when it comes to travel on the federal dollar. Consider the other benefits that accrue every time the family decamps for Palm Beach. In addition to all the free publicity, Trump is likely to count on increased sales at the club as members flock to be near him. Initiation fees doubled at Mar-a-Lago after Trump was elected, and the value of memberships is certainly supported by the fact that Trump treats his property as his Southern White House. It’s not far-fetched to imagine that one day there will be Mar-a-Lago clubs all over the world, and each will be filled with reminders that this is a presidential brand.
In addition to the President, the first lady and their son Barron Trump, the federal government spends taxpayer dollars on trips taken by his adult children and their spouses. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. have required Secret Service protection in Dubai, Ireland, Scotland and Uruguay. Eric’s 2017 promotional trip to Uruguay, where he attended a party at Trump Tower Punta del Este, cost the Secret Service close to $100,000, the Washington Post reported.
The most important point, however, is not the level of expense. Trump’s political rise can be attributed at least in part to his billionaire businessman persona, and his hardcore supporters won’t mind all of his travel and fun. What’s more alarming here is the secrecy, which suggests that someone in Trumpworld could be worried that the appeal of his gilded image is wearing thin.
