Camp Donald
Quick question for you. Remember the guy who said he would be too busy to golf? He would now like his golf club to become a permanent part of the presidency.
Donald Trump wants to turn Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach into a presidential retreat modeled after Camp David, per The Washington Post. The plan calls for the federal government to be granted part of the property, with the rest maintained as a private course.
So you get a corner of the club. The members get the rest. And the name on the gate does not change.
The gift
It started with a September 3 letter from Trump’s attorney, Harvey Oyer III, to the Palm Beach County commissioners, per The Palm Beach Post via Golfweek. The pitch: designate the club as “the permanent United States Presidential Golf Course, to be utilized by all past, current, and future United States Presidents and visiting foreign heads of state,” per the letter as quoted by WBAL.
The club would provide its facilities “at no cost to the federal government,” pay to build presidential lodging, and work with the General Services Administration and the Secret Service on the design. The letter calls it “a gift that the President would like to share with his successors, the people of America, and his fellow Palm Beach County residents.”
It even comes with a humble footnote: “President Trump will be out of office before this proposed project could be completed so this is a gift to his successors.”
How generous. Now read the fine print.
- The club itself would stay in the control of the Trump Organization, per Golfweek.
- The Trump family owns the club, but it sits on land leased from the county, a deal that came out of the 1996 settlement of a lawsuit Trump filed over airport flights over Mar-a-Lago, per Miami Business Magazine.
- Commissioner Gregg Weiss said the county needs “more information about the lease extension” before moving forward, per Golfweek.
- There is no cost estimate yet, and nobody has decided where the lodging would even go, Oyer told The Palm Beach Post.
A gift that stays in the family, on land the county owns, with a lease extension on the table. That is not a gift. That is a sales pitch with a bow on it.
The letter says the idea is “rooted in President’s Trump deep affection for Palm Beach County,” home of “the recently renamed President Donald J. Trump Boulevard and President Donald J. Trump International Airport.” The state renamed the airport for him in July, per Golfweek. Trump Boulevard to Trump Airport to the Trump presidential golf course. At some point the map is just a mirror.
“I’m not going to have time to go play golf”
You have heard this one, but it ages like milk, so here it is again.
“I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf,” Trump said at an August 8, 2016, rally in Ashburn, Virginia, per a Reuters fact check. Here is the CNN video of the promise, and the ten-second clip:
At a December 2015 rally, he went after Barack Obama: “I love golf. I think it’s one of the greats. But I don’t have time... He played more golf last year than Tiger Woods,” per CNN’s fact check. In October 2016, he said Obama governed by executive order “because he’s playing so much golf.”
Back in October 2014, he tweeted that Obama “spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter,” per the BBC.
Now the scorecard. As of mid-June, Trump had made 259 visits to his own properties this term, 148 of them to golf courses, and spent time at a property he owns on 191 days, or 37 percent of his first 512 days in office, according to the watchdog CREW, per Newsweek. An independent tracker estimates his golf-related travel and security costs this term at about $115 million, built on a 2019 GAO finding that early Mar-a-Lago trips ran about $3.4 million each.
In August, after winning two club titles at Bedminster, Trump posted that he was “given very little time to practice, because I’m focused on many other things,” per Newsweek.
Very little time to practice. Plenty of time to design a permanent course for the job.
What’s wrong with the old one?
You already own a presidential retreat. Camp David was built by the Works Progress Administration and opened in 1938. The National Archives calls it “officially a U.S. Navy installation.” Franklin D. Roosevelt turned it into a presidential retreat in 1942, and Dwight D. Eisenhower gave it its current name in 1953.
It even has golf. Around 1954, Eisenhower had architect Robert Trent Jones build a par-3 hole with four tees, and added a 250-yard driving range near the helicopter pad. In December 1984, Ronald Reagan drove Margaret Thatcher around the place in a golf cart. That photo is on top of this post. Foreign leader, golf cart, Camp David. It already works.
Trump has visited far less often than other presidents and, in his first term, called it “very rough,” per Miami Business Magazine.
Camp David belongs to you. The new one would carry his name, sit inside his club, and stay with his company.
The red costume: the golf police went quiet
For years, conservative media treated a president’s tee time like a national security breach. After Obama golfed on Martha’s Vineyard in August 2014, shortly after addressing the killing of journalist James Foley, Greg Gutfeld told Fox viewers, “You have a problem with golf and it’s getting weird,” per Newsweek.
Getting weird. Hold that thought, because the same movement now has a president who wants golf written into the furniture of the office.
And the money flows in a circle. The Secret Service pays Trump’s resorts directly for space and logistics when he is there, and in mid-2025 it signed Bedminster contracts for up to $550,930 in golf cart rentals and $80,385 in portable toilets, per IBTimes UK.
The party of “drain the swamp” is fine with taxpayers renting golf carts at the boss’s club. Small government, big cart budget.
The blue costume: Democrats roll out the welcome mat
Before Democrats get comfortable, look at who is cheering in Palm Beach County.
County Administrator Joseph Abruzzo, a former Democratic state senator, called it a “remarkable and historic opportunity” and “an extraordinary act of generosity and vision,” per CBS12. Commissioner Maria Sachs, also a Democrat, said “it should have a very positive impact on the region’s economy,” per Golfweek.
Extraordinary generosity. From the man 215 congressional Democrats sued over emoluments. That was Blumenthal v. Trump, filed in June 2017 by 29 senators and 186 House members. It died on standing in 2020. Apparently the outrage did too, at least where tourism dollars are involved.
Abruzzo sold the pitch by comparing it to presidential libraries, which communities “compete for” because of “prestige and economic impact.” Fair enough. Democrats know that playbook. Chicago gave the Obama Foundation a 99-year right to use public Jackson Park land for a nominal one-time $10 fee, per the City of Chicago. Neighbors sued to stop the park handover, and a federal appeals court rejected their federal claims in 2020.
Public land for a president’s legacy project is a scandal or a historic opportunity, depending entirely on whose president it is.
We have seen this movie
In Not Personally Profiting, the family business and the public office kept sharing a desk. In The swamp takes crypto, both parties ended up on the same donor list. And the site rant Donald Trump Is the New Jimmy Carter has a whole new subplot now, since “worse than Carter” was his line about Obama’s golf. Same pattern every time: the promise is for you. The property is for them.
Both costumes
Fair is fair. Presidents need somewhere secure to rest and host foreign leaders. If the Trump Organization truly pays for the lodging, that is money taxpayers do not spend. Obama’s center is a museum that has to follow free-admission rules and turns its buildings over to the city, per Chicago, which is not the same as a private club. And the county has not approved anything. Commissioner Joel Flores said, “The devil is in the details,” and wants to make sure there is “no cost to the county,” per Golfweek.
But here is the part neither costume wants you to notice. Republicans spent years mocking a president’s golf and now shrug at a permanent presidential course inside the president’s own club. Democrats spent years suing over Trump profiting from the office and now call his club pitch generous because it might bring visitors.
Commissioner Maria Marino summed up the mood: “Everyone else comes here to play and relax. Why not the presidents?”
Because you were promised a president who would not have time to play. You got a president building the course.
Receipts
- The Washington Post, October 7, 2026. Trump wants to turn his West Palm Beach club into a Camp David-style retreat, with part of the property granted to the federal government and the rest kept as a private course.
- The Palm Beach Post via Golfweek, September 22, 2026. The September 3 Oyer letter, Trump Organization control, no cost estimate, the airport renaming, and the Abruzzo, Sachs, Flores, Weiss, and Marino quotes.
- WBAL, September 7, 2026. The letter’s quoted language, including “no cost to the federal government,” the “gift” lines, and the renamed boulevard and airport.
- Miami Business Magazine, September 22, 2026. The 1996 lawsuit settlement behind the county land lease and Trump calling Camp David “very rough.”
- CBS12, September 5, 2026. Abruzzo’s “historic opportunity,” “generosity and vision,” and presidential library comparison.
- Reuters fact check. Trump’s August 8, 2016, Ashburn, Virginia, “not going to have time to go play golf” line.
- CNN video, March 27, 2017. Trump’s 2016 golf promises on tape.
- CNN fact check, May 25, 2020. The December 2015 “Tiger Woods” rally line and the October 2016 executive order jab.
- BBC, February 2017. Trump’s October 2014 “Worse than Carter” golf tweet.
- Newsweek, August 3, 2026. CREW’s visit counts, the roughly $115 million tracker estimate and its GAO basis, the “very little time to practice” post, and Gutfeld’s 2014 line.
- IBTimes UK. Secret Service payments at Trump resorts and the Bedminster golf cart and portable toilet contracts.
- National Archives, Prologue, Winter 2008. Camp David as “officially a U.S. Navy installation” built by the WPA.
- Wikipedia, Camp David. The 1938 opening, Roosevelt and Eisenhower, and the par-3 hole and driving range.
- Wikimedia Commons, Reagan and Thatcher at Camp David. The December 22, 1984, golf cart photo.
- Wikipedia, Blumenthal v. Trump. The 2017 emoluments suit by 29 senators and 186 House members, dismissed for lack of standing in 2020.
- City of Chicago, October 31, 2018. The Obama Presidential Center’s 99-year use agreement, the one-time $10 fee, free admission rules, and city ownership of the buildings.
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, August 21, 2020. Protect Our Parks’ challenge and the ruling against its federal claims.
Upgrade
Free readers see this section as Upgrade to paid. Paid readers pick 1 meme sticker from the Etsy shop HypocrisyDemocracy, plus quarterly sticker packs, discounts and bonus content, and 1 free business strategy & IT consultation a year with Anytech Solutions LLC.
If you haven’t subscribed, now’s a good time. Everything here stays free, always. But pieces like this take days of research, writing, and fact checking, and if you’d like to support that work, paid subscriptions are there. Thank you for your support!
Thanks for reading, sharing, and commenting.
Subscribe. Donate. hypocrisydemocracy.net. Hypocrisydemocracy@pm.me.
Originally published on Substack.