Fact Check: Did Trump spend over $18M of taxpayers’ money on golf trips alone since his inauguration?

WASHINGTON, DC: As Donald Trump, who is well known for his love for golf, enters the sixth week of his second term, a report is raising eyebrows, claiming that his golf trips have already cost taxpayers over $18 million. 

This estimate, based on an analysis by HuffPost’s SV Date using data from a 2019 GAO report, has sparked debate, with Snopes suggesting the true cost could be even higher.

Claim: Did Donald Trump spend over $18M of taxpayers’ money on golf trips?

A recent analysis by HuffPost has brought attention to the claims surrounding President Donald Trump’s frequent golf trips at Mar-a-Lago.

A post on X (formerly Twitter) on March 8, 2025, claimed that Trump's golf habits were “bleeding taxpayers dry,” revealing that his weekend golf outings have cost taxpayers a staggering $18.2 million.  

The post emphasized, “BREAKING: Trump’s golf habit is bleeding taxpayers dry. His weekend golf trips have now cost $18.2 MILLION—all while he plays at his own resorts. In just 7 weeks, he’s golfed 6 weekends straight. Americans struggle, but Trump’s living large—on your dime.”

The post has garnered significant attention, with over 8.5 million views and 111,000 likes at the time of writing. 

On Reddit, separate threads highlighted that Donald Trump had played golf for 13 of the 48 days he spent in office, which accounts for over a quarter of his time.

HuffPost’s SV Date estimates money spent on Donald Trump’s golf trips

HuffPost’s SV Date, who calculated this estimate, based his findings on data from a 2019 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. 

However, Date noted that the figures were still based on 2017 dollars, adding, "I don’t feel comfortable simply indexing to CPI [the Consumer Price Index] because much of the cost is salaries of various federal agency employees, and I don't have a good sense of how those have increased." 

A GAO spokesperson also clarified via email that they were not currently investigating Trump’s 2025 trips.

According to a 2019 GAO report, the first four golf trips during Donald Trump’s first term, between February 3 and March 5, 2017, totaled $13.6 million, with expenses covered by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. 

SV Date highlighted that each of these trips cost $3,383,250 in 2017 dollars. He applied this amount to estimate the cost of Trump’s golf trips from his second inauguration on January 20, 2025, to March 8, 2025.

Date’s analysis revealed that Trump played golf on 13 of his first 48 days in office, a claim that was confirmed by reviewing the president's public schedule.

He also added an estimated $1.1 million for the trip to Trump’s Doral resort, noting that the Doral trip would be less expensive than that to Mar-a-Lago because Mar-a-Lago’s coastal location makes surveillance more complex.

In a phone conversation with Snopes, Date explained that he used a slightly lower estimate than the actual average cost per trip, which the GAO report put at $3,392,000, acknowledging that certain costs had been slightly overestimated.

Fact Check: Reports confirm Donald Trump’s golf trips could cost more than estimated $18M

Snopes utilized the inflation-adjusted cost of $4.43 million per trip to estimate that Donald Trump’s first five visits to Mar-a-Lago in 2025 could total $22.2 million, excluding the Doral trip.

These visits demand substantial resources, including boats for security and lodging accommodations for his team.

In addition to these expenses, local law enforcement incurs significant costs. For example, one of Trump’s visits resulted in the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office spending $240,000 per day, with some visits costing over $1 million in total.