Fact check: Who played the most golf while potus. Trump or biden

1. The headline numbers — who really logged more tee times?

Public tallies compiled by news organizations and trackers attribute far more presidential golf appearances to Donald Trump than to Joe Biden. One recent compilation reports Trump played golf 377 times during his presidential tenure, with 65 of those in a second term segment and a cumulative estimated taxpayer cost attached to security and travel ^[1]. Other contemporaneous counts found Trump at a golf course for his 332nd presidential visit as of April 5, 2025, and noted 13 rounds in that second term window, signaling slightly different cutoffs and counting rules among trackers ^[3]. Joe Biden’s recorded golf outings are far fewer in public tallies — about 20 documented times from 2021 to 2025 — a figure that multiple outlets use as a baseline comparison despite variation in what qualifies as a “round” versus a “visit” ^[2].

2. Why totals differ — methodology, timeframes, and definitions matter

Discrepancies between counts stem from different definitions of a “golf outing” (round played vs. visits to golf facilities), variable time cutoffs, and whether private or unpublicized games are included. Some trackers count every visit to a course or club as a round, while others attempt to verify an actual round played. Reporters also face uneven access to records and rely on presidential schedules, pool reports, and local club logs, which can undercount private play. Variations in whether visits to a president’s own properties are counted separately or included in broader “visits to private clubs” also change totals ^{[4] [3]}. The result is consistent directionality — Trump >> Biden — but fluctuating absolute numbers depending on the chosen methodology ^{[1] [3]}.

3. Cross-checking context — what else the records reveal about presidential leisure

Beyond raw counts, sources place Trump’s golfing within a broader pattern of frequent visits to his properties and clubs, which critics and some watchdogs frame as self-dealing or taxpayer cost concerns tied to repeated travel and security arrangements ^{[5] [1]}. Reports estimate significant taxpayer expense associated with Trump’s golf trips, and note that many rounds occurred at properties owned or branded by Trump, which raises distinct ethical and fiscal questions separate from the leisure tally itself ^{[1] [5]}. Biden’s fewer public golf outings do not come with the same pattern of regular visits to personally owned clubs, altering the ethical and public-cost context in comparisons ^[2].

4. Historical perspective — how these numbers stack up with other presidents

Placing Trump and Biden in a longer presidential golf history highlights that high totals are not unprecedented, but patterns vary by president. Some presidents historically have large tallies over two terms, and some trackers have Biden picking up golf later in life yet still far below the multi-hundred rounds attributed to certain predecessors or to Trump’s reported totals ^{[6] [4]}. The comparison is meaningful for public expectations and for debates over time use and optics, but historical comparisons also suffer from differing record-keeping across administrations, making direct apples-to-apples comparisons across decades imperfect ^[6].

5. What the numbers don’t tell you — caveats and unanswered questions

The available tallies resolve the core question — Trump played more golf as president than Biden by a wide margin — but they do not capture private, unreported play, nor do they fully address context like reasons for travel, official work done around golf visits, or changes in security and logistics that affect cost. Different outlets use different cutoffs and counting rules, and some sources focus on rounds while others count visits. Readers should treat the numerical gap as robust while recognizing that precise totals are sensitive to methodology and incomplete records in some cases ^{[1] [3] [2]}.