Trump’s Golf Misadventures Didn’t Stop With His Presidency
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Donald Trump’s affinity for golf is one of his defining traits. So a report in the New York Times that he asked Woody Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to the U.K., to push the British government to steer the British Open to one of Trump’s golf properties back in 2018 might not have surprised a lot of people. The New York Times said the White House declined to comment on Trump’s instructions to Johnson, as did the ambassador and the State Department.
Bloomberg Opinion senior columnist Timothy L. O’Brien has spent years reporting on Trump and the Trump Organization. Trump sued him, unsuccessfully, for libel, claiming that O’Brien’s biography “TrumpNation” did not accurately represent his wealth. Here’s a sampling of O’Brien’s work on Trump and his golf courses.
Inside Trump’s Money-Losing Scottish Golf Paradise — “Conflict-of-interest issues involving the Trump Organization’s golf ventures will remain a problem for the Trump administration. Even if golf isn’t a huge business, it’s a meaningful one for the president and his family. Foreign governments and businesses courting Trump’s favor are likely to be well aware of that. Trump has an incentive to get a helping hand on some of his courses if his money-losing Scotland operations are a guide. The president also has tried to find ways of putting a better face on Turnberry, including filing misleading financial disclosure forms with the Office of Government Ethics. In the meantime, Trump will have to mend some fences if he plans on drawing the kind of championship play that would help improve Turnberry's finances. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, one of professional golf’s august ruling authorities, has said it won’t allow Turnberry to host upcoming British Open championships due to Trump’s disparaging comments about Muslims, Chinese, Mexicans and women.”
Trump’s Golf Misadventure in the Scottish Dunes — Trump International Golf Links in Scotland “is a reminder that Trump still hasn’t fulfilled the grandiose economic-development and job-creation promises he made when he convinced locals to bend environmental rules so he could build a pair of major golf courses in Aberdeenshire. Trump purchased 1,800 acres of land there in 2005, developed the property from scratch, and then opened it in 2012. His representatives say he has spent as much as $140 million on the project. The Washington Post has reported that Trump probably spent much less: about $12.6 million to buy the property and at least another $50 million to develop it. But Trump International lost about 1.4 million pounds ($1.7 million) on revenue of about 2.63 million pounds ($3.25 million) in 2016, according to corporate filings in the U.K. — and it remains a shadow of the project Trump originally said he would deliver.”
I've Seen Trump's Tax Returns and You Should, Too — The president took to Twitter one early morning in May, which turned out to be just the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, in a state of elation: “So great to see our Country starting to open up again!” “He shared that sentiment with nearly 80 million followers and attached it to a tweet from one of his golf clubs, Trump National, in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. ‘Game on! We are thrilled to announce the reopening of @trumpgolfla beginning Saturday May 9th!,’ the club tweeted. ‘We look forward to welcoming you back. Book your tee time now!’ Sometimes a tweet is just a tweet. And sometimes it’s an advertisement for your business. And sometimes, when the president of the United States promotes his business on Twitter while overseeing the federal response to a pandemic gutting the economy, it’s a financial conflict of interest.”
Emolumental: Mulvaney and Trump Like Doral for a G-7 Quid Pro Quo — “The Trump Organization has been struggling to keep revenue and profits robust at Doral — its biggest golf property — and thus has incentives to steer government business in its own direction. Doral has also received bad press about bedbug, roach and other insect infestations. … Like Sean Spicer before him, Mulvaney appears entirely willing to throw himself in front of the media and dissemble while essentially serving as one of Trump’s crash test dummies. It’s also still astounding how easily Trump co-opts people like Mulvaney and how readily Mulvaney and his ilk trample on the Constitution and shred core, nonpartisan public values in Trump’s service.”
On Trump, Sharpiegate, Turnberry, the Taliban and Chaos — “The U.S. military has also fallen under the president’s sway, it would appear. Politico reported that Democrats in the House of Representatives are investigating whether Air Force crews have been improperly routed for stays at the president’s money-losing golf resort in Turnberry, Scotland, raising the possibility that taxpayers’ dollars are helping a Trump business stay afloat.”
More Reading
- Trump’s $50,000 Golf Simulator? It’s Fine. — Jonathan Bernstein
- Use of the Presidential Seal Is Tacky, But Not Criminal — Stephen L. Carter
- Trump Wins While Losing in Florida Golf Club Dispute — Joe Nocera
- Trump's Golf Course Believes in Global Warming — Bloomberg’s Editorial Board
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Brooke Sample is an editor for Bloomberg Opinion. She has been a copy editor for Euromoney Institutional Investor, the Virginian-Pilot and Gannett New Jersey newspapers.
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