The Infected President’s Ill-Advised Trip to Bedminster

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Now that President Donald Trump is back in the White House and has declared himself largely recovered from Covid-19, it’s worth revisiting what he was doing around the time he was infected.

One big question remains: Why was he so determined to go to Trump National, his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club on Thursday? He may not yet have tested positive for Covid-19 when he went, but he knew that morning he had been in contact with someone who was infected, senior aide Hope Hicks.

Before Marine One departed for New Jersey that day, some White House staffers who had contact with Hicks were pulled off the presidential helicopter, but Trump plowed ahead. He was diagnosed with Covid-19 in two separate tests later that evening, after returning to Washington. In a televised phone call shortly before 10 p.m. with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, Trump said he had “just heard” about Hicks’s diagnosis — which wasn’t true — and didn’t disclose he had already tested positive. That was in keeping with other efforts Trump has made to keep a lid on the emerging crisis. “Don’t tell anyone,” Trump told an adviser who had also tested positive, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump waited until nearly 1 a.m. on Friday to reveal publicly, on Twitter, that he had Covid-19.

So why did he take such a risk — and put so many others in danger — by visiting Bedminster?

“It was deemed safe for the president to go,” said White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who has since tested positive for Covid-19, in a press briefing last week. “He socially distanced, it was an outdoor event and it was deemed safe by White House operations for him to attend that event.”

Most accounts note that Trump went for a political fundraiser. And yes, a lucrative campaign event was afoot. An email to supporters said individuals who paid $2,800, and couples who paid $5,600, could attend a reception with Trump in Bedminster. For $50,000, supporters also got a photo-op with the president inside the clubhouse. For $250,000, donors could join an exclusive roundtable discussion with Trump. (None of this sounds particularly socially distanced or entirely outdoors, but McEnany and I may have different definitions of those terms.) About 100 people attended, and millions of dollars flowed to the president’s re-election campaign.

But most of the reporting on Trump’s trip has overlooked another reason he was intent on being at Bedminster. There was another event taking place there last Thursday that could have held greater sway with the president than the political fundraiser.

One of Trump National’s most important annual events, a tournament known as the Gentlemen’s Invitational, kicked off that day. It’s the largest golf event the club hosts each year. Participants were invited for practice rounds on Thursday, the tournament began Friday, and it continued over the weekend.

Trump National, the first course Trump opened, is among his most prized businesses. He publicly vetted his cabinet picks there after winning the 2016 presidential election. His daughter Ivanka held her wedding there. And it’s likely that the club, like many of Trump’s golf properties, has been ailing financially; it had to shut down entirely earlier this year after the coronavirus began its stampede. The Gentlemen’s Invitational was an important signal that Trump National, like Trump himself, had survived a brutal pandemic.

A Trump appearance in Bedminster, while a burden on the town and residents who live nearby because of the crush of traffic and security, is good for his business — especially this year. Trump’s visit is also a reminder of the financial conflicts of interest that have compromised his presidency. Trump openly mingled political and business affairs at Trump National last week, with an added measure of irresponsibility around his own health and those he came into contact with in Bedminster.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said his state has opened an investigation of the Bedminster fundraiser to find out whether Trump National complied with the state’s coronavirus rules for large gatherings. “The President & his staff acted recklessly in coming to New Jersey knowing that they had been exposed to someone with a confirmed positive test,” the governor tweeted on Monday. Murphy said he’s working with federal and state health officials to conduct contact-tracing, an effort that involves 206 attendees and 19 people who work at Trump National. Murphy noted in an interview with CBS that part of the event was held indoors — contrary to what McEnany said during her White House presser. A Murphy spokesman said that he isn’t aware of any probe of the Gentlemen’s Invitational for violating New Jersey’ coronavirus compliance guidelines, which allow outdoor gatherings of up to 500 people.

Trump National and its general manager, David Schutzenhofer, didn’t return phone calls and email seeking comment about the tournament and Trump’s visit. But a person directly familiar with the club’s operations and the Gentlemen’s Invitational, who requested anonymity because he feared retribution from the club and Trump, told me that hosting the Gentlemen’s Invitational added hundreds more bodies to the crowds milling around Trump National on Thursday.

This person said that the tournament was originally limited to 60 members and their guests, but because Trump National “needed the money” it expanded the event to 91 members and their guests, for a roster of about 182 golfers. The person said that among Trump supporters bused in for the president’s appearance, the throngs of other donors, and the golfers and Secret Service agents, few people were wearing masks.

Members paid $1,500 to join the tournament, so it would have brought in about $136,500. That’s far less than the millions the political fundraiser probably raised. But Trump has a history of putting his own wallet ahead of politics. The Gentlemen’s Invitational would have been important to the president because it is tied to the future well-being of Trump National, a small but trophy business in his portfolio.

Trump has not been shy about leveraging the Oval Office to benefit his golf courses. He suggested using Trump National Doral in Florida, another money-losing club, to host a Group of Seven diplomatic summit — until a public backlash persuaded him to drop the idea. Vice President Mike Pence and his entourage on a visit to Ireland went way out of their way to stay at Trump’s golf club there — because Trump told him to. Trump’s golf courses in Scotland have been hotbeds for financial conflicts and have also been money losers. Trump asked his ambassador to the U.K. to press the British government to steer an illustrious and lucrative golf tournament, the British Open, to his Turnberry resort in Scotland.

In this context, it’s not surprising that Trump would put his business’s bottom line ahead of the well-being of people at his club when he traveled to Bedminster last week. Given the opportunity to cross-fertilize his business, his political prospects and his ego, Trump didn’t blink, despite the public health dangers involved. Par for the course.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Timothy L. O'Brien is a senior columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

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