The Total Could Be 20 to 40 Percent Higher Once Arrival, Departure and Advance-team Days Are Included

The tracker's estimates are based on a 2019 Government Accountability Office report that found early first-term trips to Mar-a-Lago cost about $3.4 million each, largely due to Air Force One travel, Coast Guard patrols and C-17 cargo flights. The total could be 20 to 40 percent higher once arrival, departure and advance-team days are included. HuffPost calculated Trump's golf-related costs at $101.2 million as of late March, when he had golfed 110 days in just over 14 months in office, and estimated he could spend about $300 million by the end of his second term.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington found that, as of mid-June, Trump had made 259 total visits to his properties, including 148 to golf courses, and had spent time at a property he owns on 191 days, or 37 percent of his first 512 days in office. Trump's habits have long been compared with those of Barack Obama, whom he repeatedly criticized for playing golf while in office. According to the tracker, Obama played 333 rounds during his two terms, or about 11.4 percent of his 2,922 days as president, while Trump has visited courses on 20.05 percent of his first-term days and 26.4 percent of his second-term days so far.

The cost difference is largely tied to location: Obama mostly played at Joint Base Andrews, traveling by motorcade, while Trump's outings involve trips to private clubs in Florida and New Jersey. Estimates of Obama's travel costs are not a direct comparison; Is Trump Golfing Today? estimates his total presidential travel costs at roughly $105 million over eight years, while Judicial Watch calculated the Obama family's personal travel costs at $105.7 million.

Trump tweeted about Obama's golfing at least 27 times between 2011 and 2016, and at a 2015 rally said, "Obama, it was reported today, played 250 rounds of golf. He promised voters in 2016, "I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to play golf. By 2020, after golfing more than Obama had at the same point in their terms, Trump claimed the opposite, writing on Twitter, Obama played more and much longer.