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.”
From HuffPost:
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.
