Trump's Super Bowl weekend cost taxpayers $3.4 million, according to analysis

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Trump's Super Bowl weekend cost taxpayers $3.4 million, according to analysis
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Susan Walsh/AP

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President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump watch as the Florida Atlantic University Marching Band performs during a Super Bowl party at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020.

  • President Donald Trump's Super Bowl weekend trip to his Mar-a-Lago resort ran taxpayers $3.4 million, according to analysis from the Huffington Post.
  • The outlet analyzed official transportation and security costs based on Trump's past filings, which also put the total cost of his golf outings while in office at $130.4 million.
  • In addition to official security detail costs, Trump's time spent hosting functions at his properties across the world has raised concerns among government watchdogs over his turning profits from his clubs while serving as president.
  • Business Insider previously reported that Trump made at least $434 million in 2018, according to his annual financial disclosure, including roughly $22.7 million from the Mar-a-Lago resort.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

In keeping with his own tradition, President Donald Trump spent this year's Super Bowl weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he enjoyed rounds of golf, was celebrated by a group of his supporters, and a party for paying guests to watch the big game.

Trump's football-themed weekend was just the latest stay at "the Winter White House," and ran taxpayers $3.4 million, according to analysis from the Huffington Post that rounded up official transportation and security costs.

Each of Trump's trips to the Palm Beach property rack up costs through necessary procedures that tenure Air Force transportation, Coast Guard patrols, Secret Service security and other expenses, the outlet noted, as seen in a January 2019 Government Accountability Office report detailing Trump's first four visits to the resort after he took office in early 2017.

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The Post added that this weekend marked Trump's 28th visit to the property, 79th day playing golf there, and 244th day spent playing golf at one of his properties since becoming president.

The Huffington Post reported that White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham brushed off its request for comment on the figure and defended Trump's trip.

"The premise of your story is ridiculous and false, and just more left-wing media bias on display," Grisham reportedly told the outlet. "The president never stops working, and that includes when he is at the Winter White House."

The report did not mention if Grisham acknowledged the photo Trump tweeted of himself golfing and "getting some exercise" while at the resort.

Trump has also been known to spend weekends indulging his golf habit at his Sterling, Virginia, club, which lies just over 26 miles from the White House.

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Business Insider previously reported that Trump made at least $434 million in 2018, according to his annual financial disclosure, including $40.8 million from his hotel that sits blocks away from the White House and roughly $22.7 million from the Mar-a-Lago resort.

This Super Bowl weekend appeared to be one of Trump's most festive trips yet as a party held by the "Trumpettes," a pro-Trump group, that included a banner bearing Trump's likeness superimposed on a cartoon football player. The event, which was run under the name "Red White & Blue: Celebrating Trump Kick-Off 2020 Victory," also included appearances by first lady Melania Trump, the president's son, Donald Trump Jr., and his girlfriend and Fox News alum, Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Since he took office, government watchdogs have repeatedly raised concerns about Trump turning profits from his clubs while serving as president.

"When Donald Trump announced that he would break decades of precedent and hold onto his business, many were afraid it was to find ways to keep making money on the side of his work as president," Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told HuffPost. "Turns out the presidency is more like a thing he does on the side to help make money for his business."

In August 2019, Trump's critics accused him of violating the Constitution when he said he was looking at hosting world leaders for the next G7 at his Trump National Doral Miami Golf Resort.

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