How are costs for presidential golf trips calculated and reported by the government?
Executive summary
Government accounting for presidential golf trips is not a single line‑item but an aggregation of travel and security expenses estimated from public schedules and past government reports; HuffPost’s analysis — cited widely in media — places Trump’s second‑term golf costs at about $70.8–$71 million so far in 2025 and estimates roughly $3.4 million per Mar‑a‑Lago trip based on earlier GAO/2019 trip-cost benchmarks [1] [2] [3].
1. How reporters and trackers build the bill: piecing together travel and security
Journalists and independent trackers estimate presidential golf costs by adding up travel — chiefly the use of large presidential aircraft or Marine One — plus the extraordinary security footprint (motorcades, Coast Guard patrols, Secret Service details). Estimates cited in recent reporting rely on an average per‑trip figure derived from a Government Accountability Office (GAO)‑style analysis of prior trips and apply that per‑trip number to the president’s public schedule; HuffPost and outlets using its figures say each Mar‑a‑Lago country‑club trip runs roughly $3.4 million [1] [2] [3].
2. Government reporting versus journalistic reconstructions
Available sources do not point to a single, regularly updated federal line‑item labelled “golf trips.” Instead, government entities (like the GAO) have previously reviewed discrete trips and produced cost breakdowns, and reporters use those snapshots to model ongoing totals. The HuffPost analysis — the basis for multiple stories — extrapolates earlier GAO/2019 per‑trip costs to current travel patterns to reach its $70.8–$71 million figure for 2025 [1] [2].
3. Why Mar‑a‑Lago and some trips cost more
Mar‑a‑Lago trips are repeatedly flagged as especially expensive because of complex local security and transport logistics: island geography, maritime security patrols, and the use of the large modified Boeing 747 that serves as Air Force One. Reporters note that Bedminster, N.J., trips cost less because nearby airports cannot handle the 747 and require smaller aircraft or helicopter travel, reducing the per‑trip bill [3] [4].
4. Methodological limits and divergent tallies
Different trackers produce divergent totals because of methodology: HuffPost’s approach applies an unadjusted 2019 per‑trip number to 2025 trips, yielding about $70.8 million to $71 million so far; DidTrumpGolfToday.com uses its own per‑trip averages and reports a higher cumulative figure (about $107.8 million in one snapshot). News outlets explicitly warn the true total is “almost certainly higher” than unadjusted estimates because inflation and additional uncounted costs aren’t always included [1] [2] [5].
5. What counts and what reporters often can’t see
Public analyses generally include observable travel and security costs but may omit harder‑to‑trace expenditures such as overtime pay across federal agencies, indirect local law enforcement costs, or classified mission support where details are withheld. Available reporting does not list a comprehensive federal reconciliation of all such ancillary costs; HuffPost and others caution their totals are conservative compared with the likely full taxpayer burden [1] [2].
6. Political framing and competing narratives
Coverage of these costs is politically charged. Critics and some lawmakers use the tallies to argue inefficiency and waste, citing figures like “over $30 million” early in the term or the $70+ million later tallies; other outlets emphasize methodological caveats and compare patterns across presidents to contextualize the spending. Sources like People and HuffPost report both the raw estimates and lawmakers’ reactions, showing how cost accounting becomes an instrument in partisan debate [6] [1].
7. How to read future reports: follow the method, not just the number
To understand future claims, scrutinize the method: are analysts using GAO trip‑level breakdowns as a baseline, adjusting for inflation, counting only travel/security, or adding local law enforcement overtime and maritime patrols? The most transparent pieces cite their per‑trip basis and admit likely undercounting; HuffPost’s published approach has been the basis for many subsequent headlines and aggregation sites [1] [2] [3].
Limitations: available sources here are news articles and tracking sites that rely on prior GAO work and public schedules; the raw, comprehensive federal accounting of every related expense for each golf trip is not present in these stories [1] [2] [5].