After a long week of embarrassing America, alienating our allies, and cuddling up to our enemy, Donald Trump headed out for a day of golf at Trump National Golf Club in Virginia. It was the 37th time Trump has golfed at a Trump-branded golf course in only 169 days in office. The Grifter in Chief has spent more than 20 percent of his total time as president at a Trump-branded golf course or club.
McClatchy DC reports that since 2004 Trump has an unusual agreement in place that allows him to personally pocket membership fees, which can climb to $450,000 per member.
Reporting by McClatchy, including nearly 20 interviews and hundreds of pages of documents — some from litigation involving Trump and his businesses — shows that the president put in place unusual policies that allowed him to keep the high one-time fees charged to new members and put language in his club rules that allowed him to spend the money on anything he wanted.
“It’s definitely unusual,” said Jay Karen, CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association, who has been in the golf club business for two decades. “It certainly reflects a clever and shrewd way to raise capital.”
The profits go directly to Trump—not to the Trump organization, but ti the Grifter in Chief himself. Are you a Big Oil executive who wants to put $450,000 directly in the pocket of the president of the United States? Buy a membership. Are you a representative of a foreign government who really wants to get his attention? Buy a membership for the whole family!
And what is the White House reaction to this story and possible influence-peddling? That it’s a private company, so it’s none of your business.
The White House referred questions to the Trump Organization, the business now run by Trump’s sons, which did not respond to questions. But in an interview after a Mar-a-Lago member quietly arranged for a pair of former Colombian presidents to meet Trump, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told NBC News that Americans didn’t need to know about the clubs, including the identity of its members.
“I mean this is a private business,” he said. “It’s a private organization. It’s a private club.”