Trump: the White House is “a real dump”

The White House mansion has 55,000 square feet, 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, and three kitchens and costs $750,000 to $1.6 million a year to maintain, but President Donald Trump is not impressed.

According to reporting from Golf.com, Trump recently told members at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, that he spends so little time in the White House because "That White House is a real dump.” The White House denies these claims.

Trump, unlike previous presidents, has spent a great deal of time away from the White House, conducting business from his several resort properties. Since taking office, he has spent at least 11 weekends of 28 at the exclusive Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, and the Bedminster Golf Club. One website, which tracks Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago and Bedminster, estimates (using government reports and studies) that these trips have cost taxpayers $29 million in total so far.

When Golf.com published Trump’s criticism of the White House, many on social media were quick to seize on his remarks.

Chelsea Clinton, who lived at the White House from age 12 to 17, during her father’s two terms as president, took to Twitter to defend the White House staff.

The Golf.com article also reported the not-so-honest approach Trump takes in his golf game:

Trump will sometimes respond to a shot he duffed by simply playing a second ball and carrying on as if the first shot never happened. In the parlance of the game, Trump takes floating mulligans, usually more than one during a round. Because of them it is impossible to say what he has actually shot on any given day, according to 18 people who have teed it up with Trump over the last decade, including SI senior writer Michael Bamberger, who has done so nine times. In 2007, Trump called Bamberger to brag about a 68 he had shot at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles. Trump’s handicap index is officially 2.8, but he has posted only three scores since ’14. Els, a South Florida resident who has known Trump for many years, estimates he is “an eight or a nine.” For Trump to shoot 68 on a tough course like Bel-Air would require him to play nearly perfectly from tee to green while making a number of substantial putts. One of his playing partners that day confirmed that Trump played “good,” but that he took all the usual liberties common among everyday golfers: mulligans, gimmes, improved lies, etc. There was no mention of the 68 in a subsequent story, and Bamberger heard about it from Trump.

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