Donald Trump once told a crowd in 2016 that he’d rarely leave the White House because there was just "so much work to be done." He famously promised he wouldn’t be a president who takes vacations. But if you look at the logs from his four years in office, the reality of the situation is a bit more complicated—and a lot more expensive.
When we talk about how many vacation days did Trump take, we’re usually splitting hairs between what the White House called a "working vacation" and what critics called a golf trip. By the time he left office in January 2021, the tally for his time away from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was significant.
According to various trackers and news organizations like the Washington Post and NBC News, Trump spent all or part of 378 days at his own properties. That’s roughly one-third of his entire presidency spent at a Trump-branded club or hotel.
Breaking Down the 378 Days
Most of this time wasn't spent at the traditional presidential retreat, Camp David. While George W. Bush practically lived at his ranch in Crawford and Obama favored Martha’s Vineyard, Trump’s "off" time was almost exclusively spent at places where his name was on the front door.
His favorite haunts were:
- Mar-a-Lago: 134 visits to the "Southern White House" in Palm Beach.
- Bedminster: 104 visits to his New Jersey golf club, often for weeks at a time in the summer.
- Trump International Golf Club: 92 visits to his West Palm Beach course.
- Sterling, Virginia: 91 visits to his club just outside D.C.
Honestly, the "vacation" label is a point of contention. The White House staff almost always referred to these as working trips. They’d point to the fact that he was still receiving daily briefings, meeting with world leaders like Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago, or signing executive orders. But for the average person watching the news, seeing the president in a golf polo for the 250th time felt like a vacation.
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The Golf Factor
You can't talk about Trump’s time away without talking about the golf. It’s basically the centerpiece of the data. During his first term, Trump made roughly 298 daytime visits to golf clubs.
He didn't just go to look at the grass. Evidence suggests he played golf on at least 150 of those visits. For someone who once said, "I’m not going to have time to go play golf," that’s a lot of rounds.
Compare that to Barack Obama, who was frequently criticized by Trump himself for his golfing habits. Obama played about 333 rounds of golf across eight years. Trump managed to hit nearly 300 visits in just four. The pace was nearly double.
What This Cost Taxpayers
This is where people usually get fired up. Presidential travel is never cheap, but when the president stays at his own resorts, the logistics get weird.
A GAO report from 2019 looked at just four of Trump's early trips to Mar-a-Lago. The price tag? About $13.6 million. That breaks down to roughly $3.4 million per trip.
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The costs include:
- Air Force One: It costs over $200,000 per hour to fly that plane.
- Secret Service: They have to stay on-site. The controversy here was that the government was often paying the Trump Organization for the rooms the agents stayed in.
- Coast Guard: When he was in Florida, the Coast Guard had to patrol the waters around Mar-a-Lago.
- Local Law Enforcement: Palm Beach County often had to foot the bill for overtime, though some of that was eventually reimbursed by the federal government.
How He Compares to Other Presidents
If we’re being fair, every president gets roasted for taking time off. It’s a classic American political tradition.
George W. Bush actually holds the modern record for days away from the White House. He spent a staggering 1,020 days at his ranch or at Kennebunkport. However, critics of Trump argue there’s a difference between a private ranch and a commercial resort where the president is essentially promoting his own brand every time he shows up.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, has spent a significant portion of his presidency in Delaware. By early 2025, some counts put his "away" time at over 500 days, either at his home in Wilmington or at Rehoboth Beach.
The common thread? Presidents never actually "vacation." They travel with a "football" (the nuclear codes), a massive security detail, and a portable communications hub. Whether they are in Bedminster or a beach in Delaware, they are always on the clock.
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Why the Numbers Matter
The debate over how many vacation days did Trump take isn't just about laziness or hard work. It's about optics and ethics.
When a president spends 378 days at his own properties, he’s effectively using the office of the presidency as a giant billboard for his businesses. Every time Air Force One lands in Palm Beach, it’s a million-dollar advertisement for Mar-a-Lago.
On the flip side, supporters argue that the president should be allowed to work wherever he is most comfortable and effective. If he gets more done at a golf club than in a stuffy office in D.C., does it really matter?
Takeaway for the Record
If you're looking for a hard number, 378 is the one most historians and trackers land on for the first term. It represents the days he spent at his own properties, which functioned as his primary vacation spots.
Whether you consider that "taking a vacation" or "working from a satellite office" depends entirely on your politics. But the data shows that Trump was away from the White House far more often than he predicted he would be.
To dig deeper into the specifics of these trips, you can look up the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports on presidential travel costs or check the archives of the "Trump Golf Count" which meticulously tracked every time he hit the links. Understanding these numbers helps put the ongoing conversation about presidential accountability and taxpayer spending into perspective.
Actionable Next Steps
If you want to track this in real-time for the current administration or compare historical data, you should:
- Monitor the GAO Website: Search for "Presidential Travel" to find updated audits on travel expenditures.
- Check Public Records: Use the Federal Election Commission (FEC) database to see how much political committees spend at presidential properties.
- Follow Independent Trackers: Sites like FactCheck.org and PolitiFact maintain running tallies of presidential "days away" that are updated regularly.