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Topics: Donald Trump, Money, Politics, US News
Callum Jones
Donald Trump's penchant for golf is racking up a pricey bill for taxpayers, according to reports - and it turns out there's an explanation behind the eye-watering sum.
President Trump has been in office for nearly 50 days, and to say it's been eventful is an understatement.
The Republican president accused President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy of 'gambling with World War 3' in an explosive meeting, while his tenure has been dominated by executive order after executive order.
Away from the pressures of the job, the 47th POTUS is known for having a round or two of golf.
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Trump is believed to have played golf on 13 of the 48 days his been back in the Oval Office.
And according to an Independent report, this pastime is costing taxpayers an eye-watering sum of money.
According to HuffPost, the US leader has played ten rounds at the private Trump International West Palm Beach and three times at Trump Doral since returning to Washington DC.
Trump Doral is an 800-acre resort east of Miami International Airport, and as for Trump International West Palm Beach, that features a 27-hole golf course just five minutes from the Atlantic Ocean.
The president is a golf lover, there's no doubt about that - but that is coming at a cost to the taxpayer.
The Washington Post reported in 2019 that his travel to the Sunshine State to play the sport would cost taxpayers $64 million.
Come October 2020, Robert Reich, author and former Labor secretary, calculated that Trump had actually cost taxpayers an eye-watering $141 million.
HuffPost has looked at figures from a Government Accountability Office report published in 2019 to allege the president’s golf trips have probably cost American taxpayers more than $18 million this year.
The reason why Trump's rounds of golf cost the taxpayer so much is because he is understood to fly to the golf courses in Florida using Air Force One.
And on top of that, you've got additional costs incurred by patrolling law enforcement and explosive-sniffing dogs.
Before Trump took office for the first time in January 2017, he pointed out how often Barack Obama would take to the golf course during the Democrat's time as president.
"We pay for Obama's travel so he can fundraise millions so Democrats can run on lies. Then we pay for his golf," Trump wrote on Twitter.
Trump, who has previously described golf as a ‘passion’ rather than a game, owns 12 Trump Golf properties in the United States, two in Scotland, and one in Ireland and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).