Golfers pay millions and gain close contact with president
Members include dozens of lobbyists and federal contractors
Dozens of lobbyists, contractors and others who make their living influencing the government pay President Trump’s companies for membership in his private golf clubs, a status that can put them in close contact with the president, a USA TODAY investigation found.
Members of the four clubs Trump has visited as president — in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia — include at least 50 executives whose companies hold federal contracts and 21 lobbyists and trade group officials. Twothirds played on one of the 58 days the president was there, according to scores they posted online.
Because membership lists at Trump’s clubs are secret, the public has until now been unable to assess the conflicts they could create.
USA TODAY found the names of 4,500 members by reviewing social media and a public website golfers use to track their handicaps, then researched and con- tacted hundreds to determine whether they had business with the government.
The review shows that, for the first time in U.S. history, wealthy people with interests before the government have a chance for close and confidential access to the president as a result of payments that enrich him personally. It is a view of the president available to few other Americans.
Among Trump club members are top executives of defense contractors, a lobbyist for the South Korean government, a lawyer helping Saudi Arabia fight claims
over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the leader of a pesticide trade group that persuaded the Trump administration not to ban an insecticide government scientists linked to health risks.
Members of Trump’s clubs pay initiation fees that can exceed
$100,000, plus thousands more in annual dues to his companies, held in a trust for his benefit.
The arrangement is legal, and members said they did not use the clubs to discuss government business. Nonetheless, ethics experts questioned whether it’s appropriate for a sitting president to collect money from lobbyists and others who spend their days trying to shape federal policy or win government business.
“I think we’re all in new territory,” said Walter Shaub, who recently resigned as director of the Office of Government Ethics after repeated clashes with the White House. “We never thought we’d see anyone push the outer limits in this way.”
Citing privacy and national security, the White House has moved to keep secret the president’s interactions. Unlike the Obama administration, the Trump White House does not disclose the president’s golf partners, or whether he played. The Trump team also ended an Obama administration practice of releasing White House visitor logs. In July, a federal court ordered the government to release visitor records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., to a watchdog group. The deadline is Friday.
Trump’s U.S. golf clubs are among the most lucrative outposts in his empire, bringing in about $600 million in 2015 and
2016, according to his financial disclosure reports. It is unknown how much of that is profit because, unlike other recent presidents, Trump has not released his tax returns.
Some members find themselves in close proximity to a president who has visited his golf clubs on about a quarter of the days that he has been in office. Many describe Trump as surprisingly approachable, welcoming advice on everything from the state of the tee boxes to the course of his administration.
In April, Trump marked his 100th day in office by visiting a factory owned by a company run by a member of his New Jersey golf club. Standing behind Trump as he signed two executive orders was Robert Mehmel, president of the company that owns the Ames factory in Harrisburg, Pa., and another company that sells radars and electronics to the military, including about $54 million worth of contracts last year.
Like millions of golfers, Mehmel registered his handicap on a public U.S. Golf Association website that golfers use to track their handicaps and check the scores of other players. The site requires golfers to sign up through a club and lists when and where they played. Only members are allowed to associate their handicaps with Trump’s clubs, said Kyle Littlefield, a pro at Trump National Golf Club-Bedminster.
Mehmel registered his handicap there. He posted scores from seven rounds of golf at the club this year. Five were days in May, June and August when Trump was visiting. Mehmel did not respond to phone calls or emails.
The White House and Trump’s companies did not respond to questions about members’ access to the president.
At the clubs Trump visits most often, the list of members reflects a cross-section of wealthy suburbanites: corporate executives, investment bankers, real estate agents, doctors and their families.
The list includes dozens of people who seek to influence the federal government or sell it things. It includes chief executives of defense and technology contractors, the head of the Dell unit that sells information technology services to the federal government, the chief of a trade group representing rural utilities and lobbyists who represent energy companies and foreign governments.
One lobbyist for U.S. and Canadian airports mentioned his membership to Trump at a White House meeting in February. “I’m a member of your club, by the way,” Kevin Burke said in an exchange captured by C-SPAN. “Very good, very good” Trump replied.
Other club members work in industries closely regulated by the federal government, including the CEO of pharmaceutical maker Allergan and the chairman of the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire.
Trump has long afforded his clubs, and their members, a unique status.
In interviews, dozens of members described a president who remains the chief host and resident celebrity during his visits. He speeds through 18 holes of golf, then lingers in the clubs’ restaurants and seldom refuses to shake a hand or pose for a photo, sometimes snapped by his Secret Service detail. Senior aides regularly accompany him. Advice flows freely.
“Access to this president has been different than it has been in the past, and everybody thinks they have an opportunity to provide information that could be helpful to the country,” said Ed Russo, a longtime member of the Bedminster, N.J., club who has worked as an environmental consultant for several of Trump’s courses.
Jay Vroom, CEO of the pesticide trade group Crop Life America, said he had encountered Trump once since he became president.
The group sought for months to keep the Environmental Protection Agency from banning an insecticide called chlorpyrifos that the agency’s scientists linked to neurological delays in children and other health problems.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in March that the government would not impose new restrictions on the insecticide’s use.
Shaub, the former Office of Government Ethics director, said even conversations that have nothing to do with the government can raise ethics concerns. The Washington lobbying and contracting worlds are built on access, making any opportunity to meet the president valuable, he said.
“Face time is everything when it comes to Washington,” Shaub said. “The president bopping around his properties gives them access to him.”
Presidents have long socialized with the wealthy and well-connected, including campaign donors. But although the Kennedys visited country clubs in Palm Beach and the Roosevelts “were hobnobbing with the moneyed rich in the Hudson Valley or in Manhattan, the very people (Trump) is hanging out with are paying to be there in that setting with him,” said Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.