Trump Visits One Of His Golf Courses For 10th Time Since Taking Office

President Spending 5th Weekend At Mar-a-Lago 

President Donald Trump on Saturday traveled from his Mar-a-Lago resort to Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, his 10th trip to one of his golf courses in less than two months in office. 

Trump is spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago, which he calls the “southern White House,” for the fifth time since Inauguration Day, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $3 million per trip. 

“After holding in the Mar a Lago parking lot, pool vans on the move,” White House pool reporter Ben Kamisar wrote. “We met up with the motorcade at 9:40 and are headed to the library while the president heads to Trump International Golf Course. Have not been advised on his plans once there.” 

Trump’s aides typically have declined to confirm whether he’s playing golf during the visits. That’s undoubtedly because Trump was so critical of President Barack Obama for allegedly playing too much golf. 

But regardless of hypocrisy, Trump’s constant visits to his properties raise major ethical concerns. 

“Each visit Trump makes to one of his hotels or golf courses serves as an invaluable product placement opportunity for a business whose bottom line, in the end, benefits the President and his family,” CNN reported this week. “And it was this sort of issue that ethics watchdogs worried about when Trump announced in January that he would hand his holdings over to his family but not sell his properties.”

This week, the Trump administration unveiled massive proposed budget cuts to domestic programs — from Meals on Wheels to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — which advocates say would hurt the most vulnerable Americans. 

“On Thursday, Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney defended the draconian cuts included in the Trump administration’s proposed budget by arguing that the federal government can’t ask ‘a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for’ programs like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting,” ThinkProgress reported. “But one wonders whether those struggling Americans would rather have public radio or dole out their share of the $3.3 million a self-proclaimed billionaire is spending each weekend to mingle with his ludicrously wealthy club members down in Florida.”