Joe Biden is now POTUS

Nzinga

Lover of Africa
BGOL Investor
Trump golf cart rentals have now cost US taxpayers more than half a million dollars
REUTERS/RUSSELL CHEYNE/LIVEPIC
An expensive habit.
By Justin Rohrlich
Geopolitics reporter
November 21, 2019
US president Donald Trump is almost two weeks into the impeachment hearings that have roiled his administration. But it hasn’t prevented him from making some winter plans to play a little golf.
The president spends a lot of time on the links, almost exclusively at his own properties. At the end of October, Trump made his 224th visit to one of his 17 golf courses since assuming office three years ago. On each outing, the Secret Service must follow. And with those carts come a big bill for the American public.

As Trump rides around with his invited guests—on his last visit to the Trump National Golf Course in Potomac, Maryland, he was accompanied by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, and Republican senators Lindsey Graham and David Perdue—the Secret Service is never far behind, in their own carts. As Quartz first reported, the carts require modifications that allow them to go at least 19 mph, about 5 mph faster than a standard cart.
The Secret Service has rented 84 golf carts for Trump’s planned visits to Florida between now and May 2020, costing US taxpayers more than $50,000, according to federal procurement filings. That brings the total cost of the agency’s cart rentals for Trump’s protection to more than $550,000.
The vendor supplying the golf carts this time around—a company called Maddox Joines Inc, which does business as “Sunshine Golf Car”—is a 24-mile drive down the turnpike from Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. The president’s protective detail rented the same number of carts from Maddox Joines last winter, plus 36 additional carts on an “as needed, periodic basis.”
The price of protecting Trump on the course continues to climb. Yet, the 2019-2020 presidential winter golf season will, at least, be slightly less expensive than the 2019 summer season, which required some $95,000 from American taxpayers to pay for Secret Service golf carts in Bedminster, New Jersey. Bedminster is the home of the Trump International Golf Club. In 2018, the Secret Service spent nearly $120,000 on golf carts to be used there, rented from Associates Golf Car Service of Poughkeepsie, NY. New golf carts range in price from about $4,000 to about $15,000.

In total, Trump’s golf games—which include paying the salaries and expenses of his Secret Service detail—have so far cost taxpayers an estimated $110,000,000, according to TrumpGolfCount.com.
The Secret Service did not respond to a request for comment, but previously told Quartz: “For operational security reasons, the Secret Service cannot discuss specifically nor in general terms the means, methods, resources, costs, or numbers we utilize to carry out our protective responsibilities.”
Before he was elected, Trump regularly excoriated former US president Barack Obama for golfing.
However, Obama played 333 rounds of golf during his 8-year tenure as president—roughly 1,665 hours—or about 3% of his total time in office. Roughly 61% of his outings took place at golf courses owned and operated by the US military. In a little less than three years, Trump has so far spent nearly 2,200 hours golfing, or roughly 20% of his time in office. He has played all but two rounds at his own private clubs, according to Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, a DC watchdog group. Obama’s predecessor, president George W. Bush, played just 24 rounds of golf during his two terms as commander-in-chief.

“Needless to say, this is yet another example of the brazen hypocrisy that marks Donald Trump,” Holman told Quartz. “All of these taxpayer costs would otherwise be minimal if Trump followed the precedent of all other presidents by conducting business and vacationing on government-owned properties.”
And even though Trump himself is not personally pocketing the Secret Service’s cart rental fees, Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Trump’s refusal to separate himself from his business empire still makes it a conflict. Revenues at many of Trump’s golf clubs have declined in recent years.
“The issue isn’t that Trump enjoys golf, the issue is that he continues to make promotional appearances at the businesses he still owns,” Libowitz told Quartz. “So taxpayers aren’t just footing the bill for the president’s hobby, they’re picking up the bill to help him drum up business for his struggling golf properties.”
 

Nzinga

Lover of Africa
BGOL Investor
Trump’s Golf Trips Could Cost Taxpayers Over $340 Million
Chuck JonesSenior Contributor
Jul 10, 2019,12:13pm EDT


President Trump. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
When he was campaigning President Trump frequently bashed President Obama for playing golf and said that he would be too busy to play. Per a HuffPost article he said, “I love golf, but if I were in the White House, I don’t think I’d ever see Turnberry again. I don’t think I’d ever see Doral again,” he told a rally audience in February 2016, referring to his course near the Miami airport. “I don’t ever think I’d see anything. I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off.”


It took less than two weeks before he broke that promise vs. Obama not playing his first round until he had been in office for about three months and Obama didn’t visit a course outside of the DC area until August 2009, seven months after his inauguration. One reason Trump has been able to play so much golf is that he inherited an economy that was in very good shape vs. Obama taking office in the teeth of the Great Recession.


As can be seen in the chart below from trumpgolfcount.com, Trump has played at least 88 rounds of golf since he became President, has likely played 139 and has visited golf courses over 193 days. These compare to Obama’s 76 outings over the same timeframe.


Trump's golf outings
Trump’s golf trips have almost exclusively been to his properties. Below is a breakdown of Trump’s visits.
Trump golf outings over 2 and a half years

  • 1 of 193 outings were to the President’s Cup
  • 2 of 193 outings were in Japan
  • 3 of 193 outings were at Trump’s Ireland course
  • 190 of 193 outings were to Trump’s golf properties
  • 20 flights to Bedminster, New Jersey, to visit Trump’s course
  • 24 flights to Mar-a-Lago

At his current pace Trump will visit his golf properties about 310 times and if he is re-elected it would 620.


Air Force One
DEFENSE VISUAL INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION SERVICES, GAO-19-178

So far Trump’s golf trips have cost at least $105 million
Trump’s trips to his golf courses are very expensive and much more than Obama’s since Trump’s have been more frequent and usually requires Air Force One and all the accompanying security arraignments.
From a combination of an analysis from the HuffPost, the GAO or General Accounting Office, Politico and the Washington Post using costs from both Obama and Trump golf trips the estimated cost of Trump’s visits so far come to a range of $105 to $108 million. When you extrapolate the $105 million estimate to eight years, assuming Trump is re-elected, the total cost is over $340 million.

GAO report on four visits to Mar-a-Lago by President Trump

The GAO report estimated that just four of Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago cost:

  • $13.6 million
  • Do not “capture all of the total expenditures by the government”
  • Do not “include certain classified cost information”
  • $60,000 in expenses paid to Mar-a-Lago (there have been 24 so far)
  • Were not able to identify meals and incidental expenses, if any, that may have been incurred at the Mar-a-Lago club
To put $340 million into perspective it is:
  • 106 times Trump’s $400,000 salary over 8 years combined (which he is donating back to the government)
  • Almost twice the $190 million annual cost for the Peace Corps
  • $25 million more than the $315 million annual cost for the General Accounting Office
  • About 10 times the approximately $35 million cost of the Mueller investigation
  • But in reality Mueller’s team brought in more than it spent due to acquiring enough of Manafort’s assets to more than pay the full cost
 

carsun1000

Rising Star
BGOL Patreon Investor


seriously though, does this even make sense? Yes, I advocate for our causes to be addressed but we can’t certainly think it’ll be about us only.....I mean, Arizona voted blue and has a high density of American Indians....they have issues too that need be addressed. The presidency is not only about one race....we all have to wait and see who does what for whom.
 

Ninja05

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
You're white aren't you?

Lol...my dude. I’m not even gonna respond to this nonsense. Once again dude sells our struggle like a commodity. He and many like him hustle and get money based on our pain. The revolution will be brought to you by a ninja on YouTube selling FBA t-shirts with cheap prints.

The fact that you have ADOS and FBA vying for conference money and t-shirt money tells you all that you need to know.
 

Simply_Black

International
International Member
This is the reality the current idiot in charge finds hard to accept....

127803604_10225478645301808_1554679884068066638_n.jpg
 

pimp1101

Rising Star
Registered
So you dismiss what Kamala Harris told black people only to tell others what she was going to do for them?

Now we wonder why we're at the bottom
 

smoovejazz

Rising Star
Platinum Member
Trump’s Golf Trips Could Cost Taxpayers Over $340 Million
Chuck JonesSenior Contributor
Jul 10, 2019,12:13pm EDT


President Trump. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
When he was campaigning President Trump frequently bashed President Obama for playing golf and said that he would be too busy to play. Per a HuffPost article he said, “I love golf, but if I were in the White House, I don’t think I’d ever see Turnberry again. I don’t think I’d ever see Doral again,” he told a rally audience in February 2016, referring to his course near the Miami airport. “I don’t ever think I’d see anything. I just want to stay in the White House and work my ass off.”


It took less than two weeks before he broke that promise vs. Obama not playing his first round until he had been in office for about three months and Obama didn’t visit a course outside of the DC area until August 2009, seven months after his inauguration. One reason Trump has been able to play so much golf is that he inherited an economy that was in very good shape vs. Obama taking office in the teeth of the Great Recession.


As can be seen in the chart below from trumpgolfcount.com, Trump has played at least 88 rounds of golf since he became President, has likely played 139 and has visited golf courses over 193 days. These compare to Obama’s 76 outings over the same timeframe.


Trump's golf outings
Trump’s golf trips have almost exclusively been to his properties. Below is a breakdown of Trump’s visits.
Trump golf outings over 2 and a half years

  • 1 of 193 outings were to the President’s Cup
  • 2 of 193 outings were in Japan
  • 3 of 193 outings were at Trump’s Ireland course
  • 190 of 193 outings were to Trump’s golf properties
  • 20 flights to Bedminster, New Jersey, to visit Trump’s course
  • 24 flights to Mar-a-Lago

At his current pace Trump will visit his golf properties about 310 times and if he is re-elected it would 620.


Air Force One
DEFENSE VISUAL INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION SERVICES, GAO-19-178

So far Trump’s golf trips have cost at least $105 million
Trump’s trips to his golf courses are very expensive and much more than Obama’s since Trump’s have been more frequent and usually requires Air Force One and all the accompanying security arraignments.
From a combination of an analysis from the HuffPost, the GAO or General Accounting Office, Politico and the Washington Post using costs from both Obama and Trump golf trips the estimated cost of Trump’s visits so far come to a range of $105 to $108 million. When you extrapolate the $105 million estimate to eight years, assuming Trump is re-elected, the total cost is over $340 million.

GAO report on four visits to Mar-a-Lago by President Trump

The GAO report estimated that just four of Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago cost:

  • $13.6 million
  • Do not “capture all of the total expenditures by the government”
  • Do not “include certain classified cost information”
  • $60,000 in expenses paid to Mar-a-Lago (there have been 24 so far)
  • Were not able to identify meals and incidental expenses, if any, that may have been incurred at the Mar-a-Lago club
To put $340 million into perspective it is:
  • 106 times Trump’s $400,000 salary over 8 years combined (which he is donating back to the government)
  • Almost twice the $190 million annual cost for the Peace Corps
  • $25 million more than the $315 million annual cost for the General Accounting Office
  • About 10 times the approximately $35 million cost of the Mueller investigation
  • But in reality Mueller’s team brought in more than it spent due to acquiring enough of Manafort’s assets to more than pay the full cost

I started calling Trump "Donald Duck" 'cause he don't give a fuck...
 

blackpepper

Rising Star
BGOL Investor

Trump is right about one thing here. He, as well as all of them make deals on how they'll handle everything they have an opportunity to influence. Everyone that knows him talks about how transactional he is. He's the king of quid pro quo, this for that. He's pissed because they haven't held up their end of the bargain to help him steal the election. His current strategy is to accuse the other side of stealing the election, but he's still very pissed at them for winning without him. :D
 
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