Donald Trump's golf trips have cost US taxpayers staggering amount as he's spotted amid Iran war
Donald Trump has been slammed for being spotted on the golf course while the conflict in Iran continues.
The US and Israel launched joint military action on Iran just over a fortnight ago, with more than 2,000 people reported to have been killed in the Middle East.
Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes on a number of US military bases, including in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain.
On March 6, Iran's ambassador to the U.N said that at least 1,332 people had been killed since the war began, with neighbouring countries also experiencing deaths.
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Reuters also reported that a total of thirteen service members from the US have been killed - including the deaths of six after a US military refueling aircraft crashed over Iraq.
Days after Trump announced "major combat operations", he welcomed Lionel Messi and Inter Miami to the White House and he has continued to play rounds of golf.
He was recently spotted on the golf course wearing his usual baseball and polo t-shirt attire, having spent the weekend at his golf club in west Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump regularly spends time between his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and the White House and is known to enjoy playing golf - particularly on courses he owns.
Donald Trump's golf trips broken down
The 79-year-old, who claims to have won 38 club championships, has had his golf exploits tracked by the website DidTrumpGolfToday.com.
The website uses POTUS's public schedule to do this and do not update his golf days unless there is a sighting of Trump on the golf course.
In his second term as President, Trump is believed to have spent 99 days out of 421 golfing - which equates to 23.5% of his presidency and means roughly every one in four days has included visiting a golf club.
The website used information from a 2019 Government Accountability Office report which focused on four golf trips Trump took in his first presidency and based it on the average price per round calculated.
It's estimated that since returning to office, Trump has racked up a cost of $138,600,000 for US taxpayers from playing golf.
His first term totalled estimated costs of $151.5 million for around 261 rounds of golf - one every 5.6 days.
But he could be on course to surpass that. According to the Huffington Post. trips to the Mar-a-Lago cost an estimated $3.4 million in travel and security expenses and the biggest expense is for the Air Force One plane to travel from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to Palm Beach International Airport.
Previously, a report from AP claimed the aircraft costs roughly $200,000 per hour, according to Pentagon data.
Presidents playing golf is not a new tradition but Trump has been slammed for doing so by Rick Reilly, a former ESPN and Sports Illustrated columnist who has shared a plethora of stories about him cheating on the fairway.
On X, Reilly wrote that George Bush "stopped playing golf during the Gulf War out of respect for the sons who were coming home in boxes" but said Trump "starts a war and then tools around in his golf cart, throwing his ball out of bunkers".
Reilly called the 45th and 47 US president "a soulless little punk".
Topics: Donald Trump, Golf
Josh Lawless