How much has it cost tax payers for Trump golfing in 2025

1. What reporters and lawmakers are actually citing — hard numbers and the methodology

Coverage relies largely on an updated HuffPost tally that applies a per‑trip cost derived from a 2019 Government Accountability Office audit of four Mar‑a‑Lago trips (about $3.38m each) to Trump’s 2025 outings; using that method HuffPost estimated roughly $70.8m spent on travel and security for golf trips in 2025 so far, with the figure noted in The Independent and HuffPost itself ^{[1] [5]}. Other outlets and Rep. Jasmine Crockett quote earlier versions of that same counting method to give lower running totals — about $26m as of late March/early April — reflecting fewer trips at that time ^{[3] [2] [6]}.

2. Why the per‑trip number matters — GAO basis and limits

The commonly used $3.4m‑per‑visit figure traces to the GAO’s 2019 audit of four Mar‑a‑Lago weekends in Trump’s first term; that GAO work produced per‑trip averages and is the basis HuffPost and others apply across 2025 trips ^{[4] [7]}. The GAO sample was small and from earlier years; reporters acknowledge that today’s real costs could be higher because the GAO’s numbers are in older dollars and many expense categories (air operations, local law enforcement overtime, motorcades) vary by trip ^{[1] [4]}.

3. Conflicting snapshots: $26M vs $70M — they aren’t both errors

The apparent contradiction — stories citing ~$26m and others citing ~$71m — reflects timing and differing cut‑offs, not necessarily competing methodologies. Crockett and several March articles reported the total through late March as roughly $26m (based on the same per‑trip approach), while HuffPost’s later, updated tally through more of 2025 reached roughly $70.8m after many more weekend and out‑of‑town trips ^{[3] [6] [1]}.

4. What’s included and what’s likely missing from these tallies

These published estimates focus on travel and security costs — Air Force One and accompanying aircraft, Secret Service, law enforcement overtime and motorcades — and they use the GAO per‑trip baseline ^{[4] [1]}. Available sources explicitly warn that the true total could be higher because some costs are not transparent or directly attributable in public accounting; the outlets note that salaries for military and law enforcement are significant components and that GAO’s numbers were not inflation‑adjusted ^{[1] [4]}. Available sources do not mention a complete, contemporaneous GAO or independent audit of every 2025 trip.

5. Political framing and competing narratives

Critics frame the figures as wasteful and highlight a potential conflict of interest when trips are to businesses the president owns; The Guardian and other outlets stress that frequent travel to private properties benefits the president’s enterprises as well as costing taxpayers ^{[4] [8]}. Supporters or the White House are not quoted in the provided sources disputing the arithmetic; The Independent notes the White House was contacted for comment but did not provide a countering accounting in that report ^[5].

6. How to interpret the headline totals responsibly

Treat headline dollar figures as estimates tied to a specific methodology: they are useful for gauging scale but are not itemized audits. Multiple outlets consistently use the GAO‑derived per‑trip average to create running totals; those totals moved from roughly $26m in late March to roughly $70.8m later in 2025 as the president took many more trips ^{[3] [1]}. Any definitive claim about the “true” taxpayer bill requires a full, contemporaneous audit or official disclosure not found in the current reporting.

7. Bottom line for readers

Available reporting shows documented, method‑consistent estimates that place 2025 golf‑related travel and security costs in the multiple tens of millions of dollars — roughly $26m by late March and rising to roughly $70.8m in updated HuffPost counts later in the year — but those are estimates anchored to a GAO per‑trip average and the real figure could differ; a comprehensive, trip‑by‑trip official accounting is not presented in these sources ^{[3] [1] [4]}.