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Fact check: How many golf courses does Trump own and which ones has he visited as president?
Executive Summary
Multiple reputable accounts disagree on how many golf courses Donald Trump owns: published tallies include 15, 17, and the vaguer phrase “more than a dozen,” reflecting differences in counting methodology and timing [1] [2] [3]. Independent analyses and news reporting consistently document that President Trump visited his own golf properties frequently while in office — with published counts ranging from 62 to 76 visits, and repeated stays at Mar‑a‑Lago — but those totals vary by source and cutoff date, and the specific list of courses he personally visited is not fully enumerated in the materials provided [4] [5] [6].
1. What claimants are saying — clear numbers, murky agreement
The corpus offers three principal numerical claims about ownership that clash: a 17-course total, a 15-course total, and broader statements that the Trump Organization runs “more than a dozen” courses [2] [1] [3]. All three sources are recent and present themselves as factual inventories, yet none cross‑reference the same snapshot date or define key terms consistently. The 17 figure explicitly separates U.S. and overseas holdings (12 domestic, 5 overseas), whereas the 15 count itemizes specific countries (11 U.S., 2 Scotland, 1 Ireland, 1 UAE) — a difference of two properties that likely reflects whether certain resorts, management contracts, or shared‑ownership arrangements are included [2] [1]. These disparities show that the headline number depends on which assets and which legal relationships are counted.
2. Visits and how frequently he used his own properties while president
Reporting on presidential travel offers broader agreement: Trump visited his own golf properties frequently and more often than many prior presidents, but exact tallies differ by researcher and date. One ethics watchdog counted 62 golf‑property visits and characterized that as a 37% increase from his previous term, while other reporting cites 62 to 76 rounds or visits during various intervals and notes repeated weekends at Mar‑a‑Lago [4] [5]. Additional metrics emphasize intensity rather than raw counts: one piece estimates Trump spent 28% of his days in office at one of his courses, and other reporting notes sequences like 12 of 14 weekends at his properties, signaling a sustained pattern of use even if the precise number of stops varies by dataset [3] [7].
3. Why the numbers diverge — definitional, temporal, and editorial causes
The material supplied points to three concrete sources of disagreement. First, definitions: “owns” can mean title ownership, long‑term lease, management contract, or brand licensing; different tallies treat these categories differently [2] [1]. Second, timing: asset lists update as courses are bought, sold, or restructured; a count published in February may differ from one in May [1] [2]. Third, reporting focus: watchdog analyses emphasize visits and patterns (frequency, percentage of days), while property lists focus on inventory; the two streams don’t always reconcile because visit tallies don’t always publish a course‑by‑course ledger of where each trip occurred [4] [5]. These factors collectively produce the range of figures observed.
4. What the different sources agree on and where they omit key details
Across the board, sources agree on two verifiable points: the Trump Organization operates a substantial international stable of golf properties, and President Trump used those properties frequently while in office — particularly Mar‑a‑Lago [2] [3] [6]. Where the record is weakest is in linking the complete asset inventory to a comprehensive, dated log of presidential visits: none of the supplied pieces provides a matched dataset that lists every owned course and documents every presidential visit to each named facility. Several pieces also omit methodological notes about inclusion criteria for ownership, which is why public counts diverge even in recent 2025 reporting [1] [4].
5. Bottom line and what to request next for definitive answers
Based on these materials, the defensible summary is that the Trump Organization controls roughly 15–17 golf courses worldwide, and President Trump visited his own golf properties dozens of times during his term, with multiple documented stays at Mar‑a‑Lago and elevated overall frequency compared with past norms [1] [2] [4] [5]. To close remaining gaps, request a contemporaneous, itemized ownership ledger from the Trump Organization (explicitly defining “own,” “operate,” and “manage”) plus an itemized presidential travel log that links each trip to a specific property and date. That paired dataset would resolve the current ambiguities that stem from definitions, update timing, and differing editorial focuses across the sources [2] [1] [4].