Did Donald Trump Use Up Secret Service Budget For Golf Outings

The claim: Trump'south golf trips accept toll the American taxpayer $141,000,000

Ane of President Donald Trump'due south favorite recreational activities is golf game.

Robert Reich, writer and sometime Labor secretarial assistant, claims in an Oct. nineteen post to his Facebook page that the hobby is subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.

"In one case over again, Trump brags nearly donating his $400,000 presidential salary. Somehow he forgot to mention that his golf trips accept price taxpayers $141,000,000," says a screenshot of a tweet Reich posted that same twenty-four hours.

Reich, who served during the Clinton assistants, was named one of the 10 best Chiffonier members in the 20th century by Fourth dimension mag. The documentary maker now runs a blog, RobertReich.org.

Reich has non responded to a request for comment from U.s. TODAY. The White Firm was likewise asked to annotate.

It is probable the estimated costs of the president's golf trips was derived from independent websites such as Trump Golf Count, which tracks government spending.

More:Donald Trump slammed Obama for using Air Force 1 for election campaigning. Now he does the aforementioned

Trump's golf trips

Presidents routinely travel for business and campaign events; in the latter case, the entrada is required to reimburse the authorities, Usa TODAY reported. But the reasons for official travel are at the discretion of the White House, rendering the cost of Trump's golf trips a bit of a mystery.

In 2017-18, Trump spent 69 days of his presidency in Mar-a-Lago, a Palm Embankment, Florida, resort owned by the Trump Organization; 33 at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club; and 31 at Trump National in Sterling, Virginia, according to Usa TODAY in June 2018.

By this May 25, the president had visited a Trump golf form 266 times, CNN reported. And Sept. 5 marked Trump's 295th visit to 1 of his golf properties, according to CNN'south Jim Sciutto.

Sophie Germain has kept runway of the president's golfing and its costs at the Trump Golf Count site since his 2017 inauguration. USA TODAY has reached out to her for annotate.

An itemized breakdown of travel costs to various golf resorts totaled $141,450,266, according to Germain. Her tally of expenses includes the cost of flights to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster; law enforcement personnel costs for trips to Bedminster and Palm Beach; Coast Guard protections for Trump's Mar-a-Lago getaways; government-funded resort stays and luxury vehicle rentals in Turnberry, Scotland, another Trump-owned property, in 2018; and lodgings at Trump's golf club in Doonbeg, Ireland, in 2019. The last golf trip recorded on the website happened on Oct. xvi.

Let's await at the details.

Estimated expenses

Overall expenses for Trump's travels to New Jersey and Florida were estimated at $6.4 meg a year, and security costs charged past local governments are reimbursed by the federal authorities, according to Trump Golf game Count.

A portion of Germain's calculations are sourced from a 2019 Authorities Accountability Report that details expenses incurred by federal agenciesbetwixt Feb. iii and March 5, 2017.

Using the aforementioned data for a February 2019 report, the Washington Mail service estimated Trump's trips to Mar-a-Lago solitary cost the U.Due south. taxpayer approximately $64 million during his first two years in function.

Roughly $x.6 meg was spent on operating costs for government aircraft and boats and $3 million on temporary duty costs including transportation, meals, lodging and incidental expenses from February. 3-half-dozen; February. 10-12; Feb. 17-xx; and March 3-five, 2017, according to The Mail. Well-nigh $thirteen.five million was spent on services provided by the Section of Homeland Security the Defence force Department fabricated up the bulk of the expenses.

Another $60,000, including $24,000 for lodging for Defense Section personnel and $36,000 for operational space used past DHS, was noted in the report.

Air Force One costs would be amid the Defence force Department's expenses. In fiscal year 2020, the mission reimbursable rate for Air Force One — including fuel, flight consumables, aircraft overhaul and engine overhaul — cost $176,393 per hour, co-ordinate to the U.S. Air Forcefulness.The rate was $165,000 per hour in 2019, co-ordinate to the Pentagon, as reported by The states TODAY.

Mail service reporter Philip Crash-land reported Trump fabricated 19 trips to Mar-a-Lago between January 2017 and February 2019.

"If we, therefore, presume a coating boilerplate of $three.iv one thousand thousand per trip, regardless of duration, the full the authorities has spent on Trump's trips to the resort tops $64 million," Bump wrote. Flights alone deemed for $40 million of Bump's estimate, the Post'south Glenn Kessler reported.

Bump too observed that Trump played golf game during 31 of his start 78 weekends in part at various locations around the world. A weekend stay at his resort in Turnberry in July 2018 cost more than $1.1 million, according to a report released by the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Trump tweeted he golfed at the resort between meetings with NATO members and Russian officials.

Fact check: President Donald Trump donates his salary, but he still makes money

Fact check:Viral postal service on presidential vacations and their costs is false

A stopover in Doonbeg, Republic of ireland, during a three-day visit to the United Kingdom in 2019, added some other $3.six 1000000 in expenses to his international golf outings, according to a written report by HuffPost.

Every bit for Trump's trips to Bedminster: The president owns a firm in the New Jersey suburb, so members of the printing are non allowed access to the club, according to Trump Golf Count .

"At this point, whenever Trump spends the greater part of a day at Bedminster, we count it as a 'visit,'" and any innuendo to golf or pictures of the president in golf attire counts as a "confirmed golf outing," she explained.

Trump has played golf during 24 of 96 trips to Bedminster since the first of his presidency, according to a table maintained by TrumpGolfCount.com.

But Kessler questioned the exercise of attributing travel costs for the president and his support staff exclusively to golf game. Such estimates "flimsy" and "misleading," he said.

"Much of the logistical support for a president must follow him wherever he goes, so if the president has ane four-hour round of golf game in a 24-hour day, is information technology fair to attribute all of those daily security and logistical costs to that round of golf? We would say no," Kessler wrote in a July 2018 fact-cheque piece.

Our rating: Missing context

We rate this claim MISSING CONTEXT, based on our enquiry. References to Trump's golf trips accept been well-documented throughout his presidency. The president, himself has admitted to visiting golf game resorts owned past the Trump System while traveling away. But the reason for his official travel is at the discretion of the White House. Much of the costs for golf outings and resort stays are estimates. Absent-minded that confirmation, we cannot say with certainty this number is true.

Our fact-cheque sources:

United states of america TODAY, May 29, 2019: "Donald Trump slammed Obama for using Air Force One for election campaigning. Now he does the same"
HuffPost, June 7, 2019: "Trump's $3.6 Million Ireland Detour Brings Taxpayer-Funded Golf game Tab To $105.viii million"
Business firm Committee on Oversight and Reform, March 23: "New Written report Shows Taxpayers Foot the Bill for President Trump's $1 Million Weekend Golf game Trip to His Resort in Scotland"
Full general Services Administration, accessed October. 28: State Section receipts
Trump Golf game Count, accessed Oct. 27: "Oftentimes Asked Questions"
Trump Golf game Count, accessed Oct. 27: "President Trump's Golf Outings"
United States Government Accountability Office, accessed Oct. 27: "PRESIDENTIAL TRAVEL Secret Service and DOD Need to Ensure That Expenditure Reports Are Prepared and Submitted to Congress"
The Washington Postal service, July 20, 2018: "Trump says golf game is his 'chief form of practice.' Nosotros talked to an expert about how effective that is."
The Washington Mail, June 5, 2019: "Trump to stay at Doonbeg, his money-losing golf course threatened by climate change"
Donald J. Trump July fourteen, 2018 tweet
United states TODAY, Sept. half-dozen, 2019: "House Democrats investigating Vice President Mike Pence's stay at Trump resort in Ireland"
Fourth dimension Magazine, accessed Oct. 28: "Acme ten Best Cabinet Members"
U.s.a. TODAY, June 12, 2017: "President Trump crashes wedding at his N.J. golf lodge"
United states of america TODAY, June 20, 2018: "Trump'due south Mar-a-Lago visits cost Coast Baby-sit near $20M"
USA TODAY, April 18, 2020: "Trump'due south Mar-a-Lago furloughs all 153 'nonessential' employees during coronavirus pandemic"
Jim Sciutto Sept. five tweet
CNN, May 25: "Fact bank check: Trump has spent far more than time at golf game clubs than Obama had at aforementioned signal"
The Washington Post, July 27, 2018: "Have U.S. taxpayers spent $72 million on Trump's golf game outings?"