Has any former president reimbursed government for golf trips and when?
Executive summary
No source in the provided set documents a former U.S. president reimbursing the government specifically for the security and travel costs of golf trips; coverage instead focuses on how much taxpayers have paid for presidential golf travel, with recent estimates for President Trump ranging from millions per trip to roughly $71m–$75m already in 2025 and projections that golf-related costs could total as much as $300m over a four‑year term [1] [2] [3]. Congressional Democrats and watchdogs have called for reimbursement in past controversies but the supplied reporting does not say any reimbursement actually occurred [4] [3].
1. What the reporting actually documents: large taxpayer bills, not repayments
Multiple news outlets and watchdog summaries document large taxpayer costs tied to presidential golf travel: HuffPost-based analyses and aggregation pieces report roughly $3.4m per Mar‑a‑Lago trip and totals of about $71m in 2025 to date, with forecasts of $75m for the year and as much as $300m across a four‑year term if the pace continued [1] [2]. The Guardian and other outlets describe specific operational costs such as Air Force One hourly operating figures and local law‑enforcement burdens tied to Mar‑a‑Lago trips [3]. None of these pieces say a president repaid those costs [1] [2] [3].
2. Calls for reimbursement have been political and public, not evidence of payments
Political actors and oversight offices have publicly urged reimbursement after contested trips. For example, House Democrats noted a Department of Homeland Security inspector‑general report showing Secret Service spending topping $950,000 for a 2018 Trump trip to Scotland and called for the president to reimburse more than $1.1m in combined costs — a political demand recorded in a press release [4]. The presence of those demands in the record shows political pressure, not that repayment took place; the available sources do not report any actual reimbursement [4].
3. Why repayment is complicated: entitlement and agency roles
Reporting explains why the taxpayer bears these costs: presidential travel and protection are tied to executive functions and U.S. agency responsibilities (Secret Service, DHS, Air Force). Analyses that estimate per‑trip figures rely on past Government Accountability Office assessments and inspector‑general accounting of agency expenditures — categories not easily shifted into private reimbursement absent policy change or voluntary payment [5] [3]. Available sources do not mention a legal mechanism or precedent in the sample where a president has been required to pay back such security/travel costs [3] [5].
4. How cost estimates are calculated and disputed
Estimates vary by method. Some analyses use a 2019 GAO baseline and multiply to current trips (yielding the $3.4m per trip figure and the $71m cumulative totals) while other pieces cite inspector‑general tabulations for discrete events (the Scotland weekend totaling roughly $1.1m in combined Secret Service and State Department costs) [1] [4]. Fact‑checking outlets like Snopes also reviewed methodologies and adjusted older GAO figures for inflation to model 2025 costs, noting limits to included categories [6]. That variation in method explains differing totals in coverage [1] [4] [6].
5. Competing perspectives in the coverage
News outlets frame the issue differently. Outlets critical of the president stress the taxpayer burden and political optics of playing golf at properties the president owns, highlighting calls for reimbursement from Democrats and watchdogs [4] [3]. Other reporting and aggregated pieces note that presidential travel includes necessary security and official duties and emphasize methodological caveats — for example that some personnel costs are salaried regardless of travel and thus not always incremental [6]. Both lines appear in the source set [4] [6].
6. What the current sources do not show (limits and unanswered questions)
The assembled reporting does not document any instance in which a former president repaid the government for security and travel tied specifically to golf trips; available sources do not mention any reimbursement having been made [1] [3] [4]. Sources also do not present a settled legal precedent or routine administrative process for such reimbursements in the materials provided [3] [4].
7. Bottom line for readers
Read the headlines about multimillion‑dollar golf tabs as documentation of taxpayer expense and political controversy, not as evidence of repayment. News outlets and oversight statements in the provided reporting tally large costs and record demands for reimbursement, but those same sources do not report that any former president has reimbursed the government for golf‑trip security or travel costs [1] [3] [4].