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How do Obama’s golf costs compare to those of other recent presidents (Bush, Clinton, Trump)?
Executive summary
Available reporting shows Trump’s golf- and travel‑related taxpayer costs are widely reported as substantially larger than the amounts commonly attributed to Barack Obama, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush — many accounts cite six‑ or seven‑figure sums per trip and aggregate estimates in the tens or hundreds of millions (examples: $60.7m, $102m, and estimates up to $340m or more) [1] [2] [3]. Sources disagree about exact totals, methodologies and comparisons: some reports compare only golf‑trip security costs while others aggregate broader travel and related agency expenses, and watchdogs, media outlets and advocacy groups reach different conclusions [4] [5] [6].
1. Why numbers vary: apples, oranges and accounting choices
Different reports count different things: Judicial Watch documents cited by Newsweek compared total Obama family travel over eight years to Trump’s golf‑trip security/travel over ~2.5 years, producing a juxtaposition that can seem to favor Obama when different categories are used [4]. Other analyses focus narrowly on the extra security, transport and logistical costs for specific golf trips — the figure of “$102 million” for Trump’s golf‑related extra costs appears in several summaries but depends on which trips and agencies are included [2] [4]. Longform investigations and watchdog reports sometimes add broader metrics (e.g., agency operational impacts, Secret Service helicopter sorties) that push totals higher [7] [5].
2. Reported headline figures for Trump (and their provenance)
Media and watchdog pieces cite large sums for Trump’s golf and travel: for example, one contemporary tally in reporting put taxpayer costs tied to Trump golf trips at “at least $102 million” and other outlets and analysts estimated totals from tens of millions to “could cost taxpayers over $340 million” depending on timeframe and scope [2] [3]. The Guardian highlighted GAO findings that audited several Mar‑a‑Lago odysseys and found average federal agency costs of $13.6m for each of four audited trips in 2019, a slice of the broader spending picture [7].
3. How Obama’s costs are presented in comparisons
Some reporting and document leaks used Obama’s full eight‑year White House travel totals as a baseline and then compared them to shorter periods of Trump travel, leading to counterintuitive claims that Trump’s golf security costs were less than Obama’s cumulative travel over two terms — an apples‑to‑oranges comparison noted in Newsweek’s coverage of Judicial Watch documents [4]. Other outlets and fact‑checks emphasize that Obama’s golf was “more or less local and didn’t require plane travel,” implying lower incremental logistics costs per outing than trips that required long‑distance Air Force One moves [7].
4. Context beyond raw dollar totals: ownership and self‑dealing concerns
A recurring theme in analyses is that Trump’s use of privately owned properties means some taxpayer spending flowed back to businesses he owned, which critics say amplifies the significance of dollar totals; several commentaries and watchdogs highlight this “self‑dealing” concern as a qualitative difference from predecessors who stayed at Camp David or private homes of friends [8] [5]. Reporting notes that prior presidents did golf, but often without the same pattern of frequent long‑distance trips to properties that directly profited their owner as president [7] [8].
5. Frequency versus per‑trip cost: two different stories
Some comparisons emphasize frequency of play (e.g., reporting that Trump spent 21% of his presidency on the golf course in one early analysis or that he played many rounds in office), while others emphasize the high per‑trip logistical cost when those rounds required Air Force One and large security deployments [9] [3]. Business Insider and The Independent invoked first‑100‑days and early‑term comparisons to show Trump’s higher frequency relative to recent predecessors even when per‑outing costs differ [10] [11].
6. Limitations and conflicting claims in the record
Available sources disagree on totals, timeframes and what’s included; some figures are watchdog estimates or media aggregates, others derive from GAO audits of specific trips — there is no single universally accepted headline number across these sources [7] [3] [4]. Snopes and other fact‑checks have also called out inflated or misframed internet claims about per‑month taxpayer costs, underscoring the need to inspect methodology before accepting a raw dollar figure [6].
7. Bottom line for readers
If your goal is a simple ranking by taxpayer dollars tied to golf trips alone, multiple sources concur that Trump’s golf‑and‑vacation travel has generated larger reported taxpayer costs than Obama’s outings when apples‑to‑apples travel/security expenditures are counted; exact totals vary widely by source and method [2] [3]. If you want a fair comparison across presidents, insist on consistent scope (e.g., only golf‑related security and transport vs. total family travel) and rely on audited GAO or primary agency records where available, because media and watchdog totals mix differing calculations [7] [4].
If you’d like, I can pull the specific GAO findings, Judicial Watch records, and a few major media tallies together into a side‑by‑side table that shows timeframe, scope, and headline number from each source so you can see exactly how the comparisons were constructed (sources above: [7]; [4]; p1_s7).