The Daily Populous Sunday February 23rd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by pennlive.com and submitted by Sofa__King__Cool

One government expense that Elon Musk and DOGE have not addressed yet is the amount of money President Donald Trump spends golfing.

But, if Musk and DOGE do look at that, well … Trump is reportedly on pace to put an incredible amount of taxpayer money into perfecting his game this year. And that is because, according to HuffPost, Trump has spent an estimated $10.7 million playing golf in the first month of his return to office.

The site said it calculated the cost based off of a 2019 report from the Government Accountability Office that broke down the cost of Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago. That report, HuffPost said, said it cost taxpayers $3,383,250 for each trip.

The site said that Trump has golfed every weekend since taking office on Jan. 20 and played golf at his own properties on nine of his first 30 days in office. The site noted that because that report was based on costs in 2017, the costs is likely higher in today’s dollars. It puts Trump on pace to spend well over $100 million golfing in 2025. HuffPost reported that he spent an estimated $152 million, golfing 293 days at his own resorts, during his first term.

“It’s clear that when the Trump administration considers the definition of corruption and wasteful spending, it doesn’t count spending that ends up in the president’s pockets,” Jordan Libowitz of government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics told HuffPost. “By visiting his for-profit businesses roughly a third of his days in office, Trump is directing government spending to follow him there and profiting off the trip.

“It would be one thing if he went to Camp David every few days to hit golf balls,” Libowitz added. “It’s hard to see this as anything other than using the presidency to prop up his businesses.”

arbitrambler on February 23rd, 2025 at 14:26 UTC »

10.7 million

And I hate clickbait articles like that.

graesen on February 23rd, 2025 at 14:11 UTC »

Golfing at Maralago? So he's pocketing tax payer money.

eyebrowshampoo on February 23rd, 2025 at 13:53 UTC »

Yes I will.