Former White House Ethics Chief Slams Trump By Proposing ‘Golf On Your Own D**n Dime Act Of 2019’
Former White House ethics chief Walter Schaub is tired of seeing Donald Trump playing golf, and he wants Trump to start picking up his own tab for it.
The former Barack Obama White House official slammed the president this weekend by proposing what he calls the “Golf on Your Own D**n Dime Act of 2019,” aimed at getting Trump to stop having taxpayers foot the bill for his frequent habit of hitting the links on his company’s own courses. Schaub spoke out on Twitter, saying it’s time that Trump start paying for himself.
“How about a law that says anytime POTUS visits a property on or adjacent to a golf course, he/she must pay for all costs incurred by the entourage from the minute he/she left the White House until he/she is back inside the White House?” Schaub wrote.
His admonishment comes as Trump has topped $100 million in taxpayer dollars for his golf trips. Trump has played an estimated 181 rounds of golf since taking office, a rate of one round of golf for every 4.75 days. That includes a long stretch in which Trump avoided the golf course during the government shutdown, when he decided to stay hunkered down in the White House and would forgo his traditional trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort and the golf course.
Trump has been widely criticized for the frequency of his golf trips, especially after he had criticized Obama for golfing and promised repeatedly during the 2016 campaign that he would not have any time for golfing if he were elected president.
This week, Trump drew more controversy during his international trip that included a stop in Doonberg, Ireland, where he visited his company’s golf course and played a round that cost taxpayers $3.6 million. Critics said that Trump should be focusing on foreign relations during this trip and not stopping to play a round of golf.
As HuffPost noted, Schaub took a parting shot at Trump when he resigned his post as White House ethics chief shortly into Trump’s tenure, blasting the president’s lack of transparency.
Trump’s $3.6 Million Ireland Detour Brings Taxpayer-Funded Golf Tab To $105.8 million https://t.co/M6d3fSbo2e
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 8, 2019
“America should have the right to know what the motivations of its leaders are, and they need to know that financial interests, personal financial interests, aren’t among them,” Shaub said when he abruptly left Trump’s White House.
Despite Schaub’s request, it does not appear there is any momentum toward a bill requiring Donald Trump to pay his own way on the golf course.
