Since being inaugurated over two months ago (68 days), President Trump has managed to visit one of his many golf courses 13 times at the expense of American tax payers. Trump has orchestrated these visits eight weekends consecutively, while it’s still unclear how many rounds of golf he has actually played. The White House isn’t divulging that kind of information, yet insisting that Trump has been conducting business during these expensive trips. Receipts gathered from a from a nearby recreational auto company indicate that Trump has played golf at Mar-a-Lago a few times, while the Secret Service has already racked up almost $17,000 in golf cart rental fees as a result.
CNN reporter Nathaniel Meyersohn disclosed three separate invoices from Golf Car & Utility Vehicle Distributors, LLC, the company that rented out these golf carts to the Secret Service. The invoices, in total, amount to $16,685 and are categorized as “Golf cart rental for POTUS visit.” Apparently, Golf Car & Utility Vehicle Distributors, LLC has been used for its services by the Department of Justice before the Trump administration ever got involved. From the USASpending.gov website, records show that the company has sent invoices to the White House dating as far back as 2012, when President Obama did his fair share of golfing. The difference here is that Trump’s Secret Service members have actually spent more at this company in 68 days than Obama’s did during any given year of his second term; Trump’s Secret Service endeavors, so far, include the $16,685 and an additional $8,000 for cycles, ground effect vehicles, motor vehicles, and trailers.
However, only three of those 13 dates have been verified by the Miami-based rental company (February 2nd, March 2nd and March 3rd), which begs the question: what about the other 10 weekend outings? Aside from Sunday’s venture at the Trump National Golf Club that lasted less than an hour, the other outings have left plenty of time for at least one round of golf. During these stretches of time, some of his club members have posted Trump wearing his golf attire on various social media outlets. So the next question is: where did the Secret Service acquire golf carts on those days?
It may be safe to assume that Trump’s other golf courses offer cart rental services, meaning that the president employs the use of the Secret Service to protect him while he spends some leisure time on one of his properties.
This is just one of the ways his presidency has become beneficial to the Trump brands. According to a recent New York Times article, businesses visited by a standing president often see a spike in generated revenue, simply by being associated with the White House. But Trump is the only president to exclusively visit his own establishments. Perhaps he’s waiting to see a sizable profit in the quarterly earnings report, which will be presented to him by his son, Eric, who seemed to be quite optimistic when speaking to the Times: “The stars have all aligned. I think our brand is the hottest it has ever been.”