According to a campaign group, recently-inaugurated US President Donald Trump has spent close to 30% of his days on a rather expensive pastime that is not linked to his job
A campaign group has claimed US President Donald Trump has spent a staggering amount of time on an expensive hobby since coming to power once again.
The website Trump Golf Track claims the POTUS has spent as much as 29% of his days in his second term golfing. He is also believed to have spent a staggering $10.7million (£8,486,598) on the sport during his first month back in the White House, Huffpost reports.
The site cites a 2019 report from the Government Accountability Office that dived deep into the cost of Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago. HuffPost shared that the report revealed it cost taxpayers $3,383,250 (£2,683,245) for each trip.
The news website claimed that Trump has been on a golfing trip every weekend since his return to presidency on January 20 and it said he has played golf at his own properties on nine of his first 30 days in office. It mentioned that as the report was based on costs in 2017, the costs are likely higher in today’s dollars.
Jordan Libowitz of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told HuffPost: “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. 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.”
News of Trump’s golfing spending has made it to the social media platform X where Republicans Against Trump tweeted: “According to the Trump Golf Tracker, Donald Trump has spent 27% of his presidency golfing so far.” This figure appears to have increased since the Tweet was published yesterday (Wednesday, February 19).
The post had received 1.6million views, 57,000 likes, 4,100 comments and 6,100 retweets at the time of writing. Many X users who saw the post expressed a positive opinion towards Trump taking time to play golf, saying it is fair taking into account the long hours of work he is thought to take on. Meanwhile, others weren’t as supportive.
One user said: “Difference is doesn’t sleep works 24×7 and gets deals done on the course in which he plays a sub 3 hr round…time well spent.” Another hit back: “The guy works more in a year than you do in a decade.”
A third chimed in: “Considering he works 20 hours a day 7 days a week, I’d say that’s pretty good! Just sayin…” An avid Trump fan commented: “And still got more done than Biden did in four years. He is King Trump.”
However, some people weren’t as impressed. Users made remarks, including “he’s such an embarrassment”, “about as expected like last term but people I guess casually forgot that” and “adding insult to injury is that he is complete trash at golf too, further reducing the bang-for-taxpayer-buck.”
The Irish Star has contacted the President’s representatives for comment.