Trump’s presidency ends where so much of it was spent: A Trump Organization property
Trump’s presidency ends where so much of it was spent: A Trump Organization property
“I think he’s played 300 rounds of golf or something like that, more than 300,” he said that September. “That’s more golf than many members on the PGA Tour. Okay?”
Were he elected, Trump promised, he’d be “working for you,” as he said that August. “I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”
It took two weeks for President Trump to find the time. On the first weekend in February 2017, his third weekend as president, Trump traveled to his private company’s resort in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, heading out on both Saturday and Sunday for rounds of golf at his nearby club. He did the same thing the following weekend and then the weekend after that.
As with so many other aspects of Trump’s presidency, Trump’s reneging on his pledge to avoid the links and his incessant stops at his privately held properties spurred outrage briefly before fading into background noise. We are now no more surprised that Trump visited a Trump Organization property than we might be that he disparaged a political opponent. These are simply things that happened in the Trump presidency.
But with Trump’s transition back to the private sector on Wednesday, it’s worth noting the scope of his forays to his own properties as president, visits that often included a round of golf or two. After all, Trump’s presidency will end at Mar-a-Lago, a fitting coda for his four-year tenure.
I’ve been documenting his visits to Trump properties from the outset. Here is what that looks like.
There were two periods where he made relatively few trips to his properties. The first was when the government was partially shut down at the end of 2018 after Trump demanded Congress appropriate money to build a wall on the border with Mexico. The other was at the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year, a lull that ended when a leading government official on the pandemic task force explicitly stated it was once again okay to play golf.
Here are Trump’s visits to his properties by the numbers:
Of course, Trump Tower is no longer Trump’s actual residence. About halfway through his tenure as president, Trump announced he was moving to Florida. When his presidency concludes at noon on Wednesday, that’s where Trump will be — though his new neighbors in the state have fought to keep him from permanently taking up residence at Mar-a-Lago.
As he left the White House for the final time on Wednesday, Trump stopped to speak with reporters.
“It’s been a great honor, the honor of a lifetime,” he said of serving as president. “The greatest people in the world and the greatest home in the world — I call it a home.”
It’s not entirely clear yet what Trump’s next home will be. But once again it will be, almost necessarily, a Trump property.
