As the Trump White House faces numerous lawsuits over potential conflicts of interest stemming from the president’s refusal to separate himself from his business empire, a new analysis shows that Trump continues to profit lavishly from memberships at his many golf clubs.
“I don’t think we have anything to compare this to in presidential history. He is refusing to acknowledge that the office is bigger than his business.”
—John Wonderlich, Sunlight Foundation
Typically, as McClatchy notes in a new report, golf club membership fees “take the form of refundable deposits.”
But Trump “put in place unusual policies that allowed him to keep the high one-time fees charged to new members and put language in his club rules that allowed him to spend the money on anything he wanted,” McClatchy‘s Anita Kumar writes.
Now, each time someone joins one of his clubs, Trump himself pockets the fee.
Kumar continues:
Throughout his short tenure in the White House, Trump has frequently visited his many clubs, trips critics have characterized as attempts to bolster his business profile.
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