President Donald Trump's love for golfing does not appear to be working as great publicity for the golf courses he owns.
Related: Trump Expected to Golf at Mar-a-Lago as His Presidency and the World Erupts in Crisis
Fifteen of the 17 golf courses Trump owns worldwide (excluding his clubs in Dubai) made $221.9 million in 2017, according to his financial disclosure form for last year that the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released on Wednesday. The earnings were a minimal revenue change from Trump's disclosure form the previous year, which reported $287.8 million from the beginning of 2016 through April 15, 2017, according to analysis by MarketWatch.
All except three of Trump's golf courses had losses from the prior year, with Trump National Golf Course near Washington, D.C., suffering a 27 percent revenue decline, according to CNN. Trump has up to $1.25 billion in mortgages to pay for three of his golf courses in the next five to seven years.
Despite criticizing his predecessor, Barack Obama, for golfing while serving as president, Trump has gone on multiple golfing trips, often at the properties he owns. As of January 19, Trump had outpaced Obama in the number of golf outings he had taken: 44 compared to Obama's 29 during the same time frame, according to PolitiFact.
Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2014
Trump golfed on Thanksgiving eve while Obama fed homeless veterans, and he also hit the greens at Trump International Golf Club three days after visiting survivors of the deadly massacre at a high school in nearby Parkland, Florida.
Unlike past presidents, Trump refused to fully divest from his businesses when he assumed his role in the White House. He put his oldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, in charge of the Trump Organization.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek on Thursday.
Trump also broke tradition by being the first presidential candidate to refuse to disclose his tax returns, which would shed more light on his finances and assets.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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A Los Angeles native, Jessica Kwong grew up speaking Spanish, Cantonese and English, in that order. Her journalism career started ... Read more
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