How much did Trump's golfing cost tax payers in 2025
Executive summary
Available reporting shows widely cited estimates that President Trump’s golf trips in 2025 cost U.S. taxpayers tens of millions of dollars: HuffPost and multiple outlets put the bill at roughly $26.1 million by late March/early April and at least $70–71 million by mid‑year, with projections of $75m+ for 2025 and a possible $300m over a full term if the pace continued [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. The headline numbers — multiple tallies, same source trail
Several outlets rely on a HuffPost analysis that applies a per‑trip cost derived from a 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) review; that methodology produced an early‑term total of about $26.1 million (HuffPost’s running total cited by PennLive and others) and later a figure of roughly $70.8 million for 2025 to date, with the HuffPost piece explicitly calculating $70.8m and projecting the annual total could top $75m if current patterns continued [1] [2] [3].
2. Where the per‑trip math comes from — GAO baseline and assumptions
The working per‑trip cost many outlets use traces to a GAO audit of four Mar‑a‑Lago trips in Trump’s first term, which averaged about $3.38 million per trip in 2017 dollars (the GAO’s $13.6m for four trips). Newsrooms — and HuffPost’s extrapolations cited by The Guardian and others — apply that per‑trip figure (or the GAO’s related estimates) across 2025 golf outings to arrive at the running totals [5] [1] [2].
3. Discrepancies and growth over the year — $26m versus $70m
Early spring reporting emphasized a roughly $26m tab through March (Rep. Jasmine Crockett cited “approximately $26 million” as of March 30) and outlets repeated HuffPost’s $26,127,531 figure [6] [1]. By later reporting in mid‑year and in aggregated pieces, HuffPost and other outlets reported a much larger cumulative figure — about $70.8m — reflecting many more trips and application of the same per‑visit cost across additional outings [2] [3].
4. What counts as “cost” — travel, security, and methodological limits
The commonly cited totals are travel and security expenses tied to presidential movement: Air Force One, helicopters, Marine One, motorcades, Secret Service and local law enforcement support, and aviation restrictions noted by local authorities. Several stories note GAO’s original $3.4m per‑visit figure includes those components; HuffPost and subsequent coverage warn those are conservative or “unadjusted” estimates because they apply 2017‑era numbers and do not attempt to capture every indirect cost [5] [2] [4].
5. Projections and the political frame — why $300m appears
HuffPost’s projection that a second‑term golf tab could reach $300m comes from extrapolating the current per‑trip cost over a full term if the frequency of trips continued; outlets including The Independent and The Mirror reproduce that projection while noting it is contingent on future behavior and uses the same baseline arithmetic [3] [7]. Critics use these totals to argue conflicts of interest when trips are to properties the president owns; defenders could counter that presidential travel and security are routine functions of the office — available sources do not present extended defenses from the White House beyond noting standard presidential travel costs [5] [2].
6. Political voices and calculated outrage — what lawmakers are saying
Rep. Jasmine Crockett publicly cited the ~$26m figure in a congressional hearing to criticize efficiency and spending priorities; People and C‑SPAN carried her remarks, which helped seed the $26m framing in subsequent articles [4] [6]. Coverage ranges from straight reporting of the tally to opinion pieces (e.g., The Guardian) that place the cost alongside policy decisions on government cuts [8] [5].
7. What the reporting does not settle — full, audited federal total
Available sources rely on extrapolation from the GAO’s earlier sample and on HuffPost’s running tally; none of the provided items cites a comprehensive, contemporaneous federal audit of 2025 golf costs that adjusts the GAO baseline fully for inflation, personnel accounting, or local agency expenses. Therefore a definitive, government‑issued total for 2025 golf expenses is not found in current reporting [2] [5] [1].
8. Bottom line for readers
If you use the widely cited GAO‑derived per‑trip figure and HuffPost’s tracking, the most‑cited headline totals are ~$26.1m by late March and roughly $70–71m by mid‑2025, with analysts projecting $75m+ by year‑end and the arithmetic‑based scenario of $300m over a full term if the pace continued [1] [2] [3]. Those numbers are rooted in a single GAO benchmark applied across many outings; they are transparent about assumptions and conservative limitations, and independent, contemporaneous federal accounting for all 2025 costs is not presented in the sources reviewed [5] [2].