Which Trump golf courses were most frequently visited during his presidency?

1. A Clear Pattern: A Small Group of Clubs Dominated the Visits

Contemporaneous compilations of presidential trips and ethics watchdog tallies show a consistent pattern: Mar‑a‑Lago, Bedminster, West Palm Beach, and the D.C. area club repeatedly rank at the top of visit lists. One comprehensive analysis summarized that Mar‑a‑Lago accounted for the most days, with Bedminster and the Potomac Falls/Sterling club close behind in visit counts; other tallies list similar names with slightly different counts depending on cutoffs and whether overnight stays or rounds of golf are counted ^{[1] [5] [3]}. The convergence across sources indicates that the pattern is robust despite methodological differences, and it frames most policy and ethics questions around a handful of properties rather than a diffuse set of courses ^[2].

2. Numbers Vary: Methodology Explains Disagreement

Different sources produce different totals because they define "visit" differently: some count any trip to a property, others count only rounds of golf, and some aggregate overnight stays and official events. For example, one watchdog count tallied roughly 300 visits to golf clubs among 500 property visits overall, with Bedminster, West Palm Beach, and Potomac Falls appearing near the top; another timeline-focused list logs day-by-day presidential trips and shows repeated weekend patterns to Mar‑a‑Lago and New Jersey ^{[1] [3] [6]}. These methodological choices produce divergent headline numbers—ranging from dozens to over a hundred visits per site—but do not change the core fact that a small set of Trump-owned clubs dominated the travel footprint ^{[6] [7]}.

3. Timeframes Matter: First Term vs. Later Terms and Post‑2020 Counts

Counts anchored to different periods yield different emphases: some reports focus on 2017–2021 totals while others extend into later terms or compare first-term and subsequent-term behavior. One analysis contrasted first-term costs and visit patterns with a later term snapshot noting increased frequency in the second term’s opening months, while another historic list concentrates on 2020–21 trip logs showing repeated visits to Bedminster and the D.C. area club ^{[4] [5] [3]}. This temporal slicing affects interpretation: critics point to cumulative taxpayer costs across terms, whereas defenders emphasize the continuity of presidential movement patterns and variation by term ^{[5] [1]}.

4. Security and Cost Questions Follow the Visit Lists

Reporting tied the high frequency of visits to measurable security and taxpayer costs, with estimates of tens to hundreds of millions for protective details, travel, and local security adjustments. Different pieces attribute varying cost totals to the cumulative visits, and some reports highlighted specific expensive trips abroad to Trump properties as illustrative examples of rising costs to taxpayers ^{[5] [1]}. The overlap between private property use and official duties—documented in trip lists and event summaries—fuels ethical debates because the most‑visited venues also generated fundraising, meetings, and policy events that critics argue blurred lines between private business and public office ^{[1] [4]}.

5. What the Records Don’t Fully Resolve: Granular Round Counts and Context

Existing sources agree on which clubs were most visited but lack universally accepted granular counts of golf rounds versus non‑golf visits, and they vary on whether stays were personal, social, or included substantive official business. Some reports document hundreds of property visits with a majority at golf clubs, while trip logs list many weekend retreats to specific courses; neither approach fully answers which club hosted the most individual rounds of golf versus the most total presidential-days. That gap explains persistent dispute over characterization—whether the pattern represents leisure, official work, or both—and points to the need for harmonized, transparent accounting if one seeks a definitive single ranking ^{[1] [7]}.