Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump is heading back to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, for a multiweek vacation. This trip will mark Trump’s fifth to Bedminster in the past three months and his 12th total to both Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster since Inauguration Day.
A new Center for American Progress Action Fund analysis estimates that these trips have cost taxpayers at least $31.8 million. At this rate, Trump’s golf trips will cost nearly $240 million over his first term. In comparison, former President Barack Obama spent only $97 million on travel expenses over his eight years as president.
This taxpayer-funded trip comes a week after President Trump banned transgender soldiers from serving in the military, citing costs concerns, and pushed the Senate to pass health care policy that would gut Medicaid and increase premiums and the number of uninsured Americans. CAP Action has found that the $31.8 million President Trump has currently spent on golf trips could otherwise pay for Medicaid coverage for 5,545 recipients or nearly six years of health care for transgender soldiers.
“President Trump says he cares about costs, when it’s a justification to discriminate against marginalized communities or take away people’s health care. But in practice, it’s clear that President Trump would gladly waste unprecedented amounts of taxpayer money improving his golf handicap while he consistently fails the American people with his policies,” said Molly Cain, senior researcher at CAP Action.
For more information on Trump’s golfing costs, check out IsTrumpAtBedminster.org.
For more information or to speak to an expert, contact Terrence Clark at [email protected] or 202-741-6251.