Trump Spent More Than Three Times the Cost of Robert Mueller’s Russia Investigation Playing Golf at His Own Resorts

Authored by theroot.com and submitted by Donalds_neck_fat
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Ever since special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation began, Republicans and most importantly President Donald Trump have loved to tout how it was all a waste of money.

Well, an exclusive report by HuffPost has found that President Trump has spent some $102 million of taxpayers’ money to play golf at his own resorts—some three times the cost of the Mueller investigation—which has several watchdog groups concerned considering he’s not only blowing taxpayers’ bread so his wide ass can go cheat at golf, he’s also lining his companies’ pockets every time he plays.

Oh, and because the president doesn’t give a shit about the country, he’s already planned a seven-figure presidential visit near Ireland so he can play golf at, yep, you guessed it, his own resort.

“It’s obviously an incredible waste of money,” Robert Weissman, president of the group Public Citizen, told HuffPost. He then quipped: “Of course, the more time he spends golfing, the less time he spends governing, the better.”

U.S. taxpayers have spent $81 million for the president’s two dozen trips to Florida, according to a HuffPost analysis. They spent $17 million for his 15 trips to New Jersey, another $1 million so he could visit his resort in Los Angeles and at least $3 million for his two days in Scotland last summer ― $1.3 million of which went just for rental cars for the massive entourage that accompanies a president abroad. And, notwithstanding Trump’s campaign promise that if elected he would not play golf at all, the White House has done preliminary work for Trump’s visit to his resort on the west coast of Ireland next month, according to Irish media and government sources, even though no official meeting with Irish leaders is planned in the capital, Dublin. Late Tuesday afternoon, the White House announced that Trump would meet with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Shannon, just 30 miles by air from Trump’s golf resort in Doonbeg. It will be the first time Trump will visit a foreign country — with the staggering footprint of personnel and equipment that entails — for the main purpose of playing golf, though an official purpose was layered on after the fact.

HuffPost notes that the president’s current golfing total is 255 times the president’s yearly salary, which Trump elected not to take since he can just spend taxpayers’ money to golf. The $102 million presidential golf tab is also more than three times the cost of the Mueller report (I can’t highlight this enough). Oh, and remember when the Trump administration wanted to cut funding to the Special Olympics? HuffPost found that Trump’s golf budget could’ve funded the Special Olympics for six years.

Trump has spent twice as many days golfing as former President Barack Obama who Trump often criticized for spending too much time golfing.

“I play golf to relax. My company is in great shape. @BarackObama plays golf to escape work while America goes down the drain,” Trump tweeted in December 2011, HuffPost reports.

“Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter,” he wrote three years later.

While the White House did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment, Trump ally, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), doesn’t see what the fuss is all about.

“There’s a lot more important things to worry about than the rounding errors that we sometimes have on these things,” the North Carolina Republican said.

Trump has not only spent most of his time in office golfing but because he continuously golfs at his own resorts, his social media has turned into a promotional tool for followers who might be considering a golfing vacation.

During his trip to Scotland last year, Trump wrote: “I have arrived in Scotland and will be at Trump Turnberry for two days of meetings, calls and hopefully, some golf—my primary form of exercise! The weather is beautiful, and this place is incredible!”

“His top priority with these trips is not the business of the American people, it’s the business of the Trump Organization,” Jordan Libowitz of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told HuffPost. “The American presidency has become another tool to advertise his golf properties.”

HuffPost had to use all kinds of inventive ways to calculate the costs of Trump’s golf trips since the White House isn’t very forthcoming with the information and the Freedom of Information Act doesn’t cover golf outings. The news site found that a weekend trip to “Mar-a-Lago averages $3.4 million, with most of that resulting from the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs each hour to fly both the modified Boeing 747 that serves as the primary Air Force One, as well as the C-17 cargo planes required to move all the support vehicles in Trump’s motorcade.”

Trump has spent 61 days at his Florida courses in West Palm Beach and Juipter and stays Mar-a-Lago when he visits.

You can read the full HuffPost report here. It’s a long read and explains in-depth exactly how much it cost per hour ( $15,994) for Trump to take the smaller Air Force One out and that figure only includes fuel and maintenance. The report also notes just how many security guards and motorcades and presidential happenings must take place for this tub of orange vomit to waste America’s money.

TopsidedLesticles on May 22nd, 2019 at 19:16 UTC »

Trump Taxpayers Spent More Than Three Times the Cost...

Fixed

mastaace12345 on May 22nd, 2019 at 18:28 UTC »

Only if you don't count the money that was recovered from Paul Manfort, then the Mueller report was already paid for.

dismayedcitizen on May 22nd, 2019 at 18:10 UTC »

And the 'party of fiscal accountability' that were apoplectic and howling about Obama golfing obviously doesn't give a shit about Trump spending over $100M this way, even when Trump is putting millions of tax dollars into his own pocket while doing it.