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How many golf trips did Donald Trump take during his 2017-2021 presidency?
Executive summary
Counting Donald Trump’s golf “trips” during his 2017–2021 presidency is complicated by differing definitions (visits to a golf course vs. days he actually played) and by multiple trackers and news accounts that report totals in different ways; available reporting cites about 307 total days on golf courses and at least 142 rounds/visits in his first term, while other trackers and analyses give different tallies and cost estimates (for example, GAO examined four Mar‑a‑Lago trips at roughly $3.4 million each) [1] [2] [3].
1. Defining a “golf trip”: what counts and why it matters
Different outlets and trackers count different things: some count any day Trump spent at a golf course property (including “working vacations” or visits where he didn’t play), while others count the number of rounds actually played; that leads to wide variation in totals reported for 2017–2021 [1] [4]. For example, long multi‑day visits such as a 17‑day Bedminster stay are sometimes logged as multiple golf‑property days even if he didn’t tee off every day, inflating “trip” counts compared with a strict rounds‑played measure [4].
2. Figures reported in mainstream summaries and trackers
A commonly cited aggregated figure is “307 days” on golf courses during the presidency, reported by news summaries aggregating public schedules [1]. Forbes and other outlets noted “at least 142” outings in his first term, while Statista and dedicated trackers like TrumpGolfCount/DidTrumpGolfToday produce ongoing tallies that differ in methodology and cutoff dates [2] [3] [5]. These differences reflect methodological choices rather than clear factual contradictions in raw event logs [5] [3].
3. Government auditing and cost context
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed Trump’s earliest Mar‑a‑Lago trips and estimated the first four cost roughly $13.6 million in total—about $3.4 million per trip—illustrating why analysts track trips closely: each presidential private‑club weekend can carry substantial taxpayer security and transport costs [2]. Broad cost tallies tied to golf travel from trackers estimate totals in the hundreds of millions for his term, but these are aggregations that depend heavily on which trips are counted and how ancillary costs are allocated [3] [6].
4. Trackers and datasets: ongoing projects, different aims
Sites such as DidTrumpGolfToday and TrumpGolfCount aim to track occurrences in near real time using public schedules and media reports; they emphasize transparency but explicitly note methodological limits [5] [3]. Independent journalists and outlets sometimes use the same underlying White House logs and airport/flight data to produce alternate counts; none of the provided sources offers an official single‑number authoritative count for “golf trips” across the full 2017–2021 span [5] [3].
5. Disagreements in sources and what they imply
Where sources disagree, it’s mostly over definitions and scope rather than contradiction about single events: some sources report “days on golf courses” (307 days) while others report “visits/rounds” (about 142+ in the first term), and some tally taxpayer costs associated with those trips [1] [2] [3]. This means readers should not treat a single headline number as definitive without checking how that outlet defined “trip” or “visit” [5] [4].
6. What the sources do not say or resolve
Available sources do not provide a single, authoritative official tally labeled explicitly “number of golf trips (2017–2021)” that reconciles days‑on‑course, rounds played, multi‑day visits, and security/transport cost attributions into one figure; instead, reporting offers multiple plausible measures depending on the chosen definition (not found in current reporting). The GAO only audited specific early Mar‑a‑Lago trips rather than producing a presidency‑wide trip count [2].
7. Practical takeaway for readers and researchers
If you want a single comparative metric, choose first whether you mean “days spent at golf properties,” “rounds played,” or “distinct travel trips” and then select a source that matches that definition (e.g., public‑schedule aggregations for days on course, recreation trackers for rounds played). For cost questions, cite GAO figures for specific early Mar‑a‑Lago trips and use caution with total dollar estimates, which vary by methodology [2] [3].
Sources cited: Seattle Medium summary of aggregated days (307 days) [1]; GAO evaluation and reporting referenced in Newsweek/HuffPost summaries [2]; Statista and TrumpGolfCount cost and trip tallies and methodology notes [3]; dedicated trackers (DidTrumpGolfToday/TrumpGolfTrack) and reporting on visit vs. round distinctions [5] [4].