The national newspaper published results of an extensive investigation through which it “found the names of 4,500 members [of Trump Organization clubs] by reviewing social media, news stories and a public website that golfers use to track their handicaps.” It then drew connections with those names and “at least 50 executives whose companies hold federal contracts, and 21 lobbyists and trade group officials.”
An extensive investigation by USA Today, the national newspaper, into the membership of clubs owned and operated by the Trump Organization that included scouring the golf scores those members posted online for handicapping purposes, concluded that “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.”
Members of the clubs Trump has visited most often 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, USA Today reported. Two-thirds played golf on one of the 58 days the President was there, according to scores they posted online, the newspaper added.
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 noted. But the newspaper said it found the names of 4,500 members by reviewing social media, news stories and a public website that golfers use to track their handicaps. The newspaper said it then researched “many hundreds of members’ names and used information available online and public documents such as lobbying registrations, corporate records, property deeds and medical licenses to determine the members’ jobs and if they make their living trying to influence the federal government or win contracts with it. and contacted hundreds of those members, to determine whether they had business with the government.”
“We prioritized reviewing and interviewing members at clubs where the President has spent the most time since taking office,” USA Today added. “Those are in Bedminster, N.J., Washington’s suburbs in Virginia; and in and around Palm Beach, Fla.
In describing its research, USA Today added an appeal for further information: “If you are a Trump club member or employee, or otherwise have direct information about his clubs and their membership, we’d like to hear from you.” The newspaper said readers could “send us a secure tip using the instructions at newstips.usatoday.com.”
USA Today said its investigation 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,” USA Today added.
Trump club members include top executives of defense contractors, a lobbyist for the South Korean government, a lawyer helping Saudi Arabia fight claims over the September 11 terrorist attacks, and the leader of a pesticide trade group that sought successfully to persuade the Trump administration not to ban an insecticide government scientists linked to health risks, USA Today reported.
Members contacted by USA Today said they did not use the clubs to discuss government business. Nonetheless, ethics experts contacted by USA Today 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,” Walter Shaub, who recently resigned as Director of the Office of Government Ethics after repeated clashes with the White House, told USA Today. “We never thought we’d see anyone push the outer limits in this way.”
Unlike the Obama Administration, the Trump White House does not disclose the president’s golf partners, or whether he played, USA Today noted. The Trump team also ended an Obama Administration practice of releasing White House visitor logs. But in July, USA Today reported, 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 for that information to be released is September 8th.
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, USA Today reported. Many describe Trump as surprisingly approachable, welcoming advice on everything from the state of the tee boxes to the course of his administration.
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, USA Today reported. Standing behind Trump as he signed two executive orders was Robert Mehmel, President of the company that owns the Harrisburg, Pa., factory 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, USA Today reported. 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, Kyle Littlefield, a golf pro at Trump National Golf Club-Bedminster (N.J.), told USA Today.
Mehmel registered his handicap there, USA Today reported, posting scores from seven rounds of golf at the club this year. Five were on days in May, June and August when Trump was visiting.
Mehmel did not respond to phone calls or e-mails, USA Today reported, and 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 compiled through USA Today’s investigation reflects a cross-section of wealthy suburbanites, including corporate executives, investment bankers, real estate agents, doctors, and their families.
The list compiled through its investigation includes dozens of people who either seek to influence the federal government or sell it things, USA Today said. It includes the 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, USA Today reported. “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, USA Today reported.
Trump has long afforded his clubs, and their members, a unique status, USA Today reported. Before he took office, Trump told guests at a dinner at his Bedminster club that they were “the special people” and joked they “might want to come along” as his team interviewed potential Cabinet secretaries. Guests at Mar-a-Lago snapped photos in February as he huddled around an open-air dinner table with security aides and the Japanese prime minister after a North Korean missile launch.
In interviews, several dozen members described a President who remains the chief host and resident celebrity during his visits, USA Today reported. 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, and 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,” Ed Russo, a longtime member of the Bedminster club who has worked as an environmental consultant for several of Trump’s courses, told USA Today.
Others said the club was merely a place to play. “I’ve done zero business. I go there to play golf,” said Thomas Spulak, a member of the Trump National Golf Club in Washington’s suburbs and a partner at the law firm King & Spalding, who represents the Saudi government in its efforts to fight claims by families of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Experts on government ethics and federal contracting said there’s no prohibition on executives from companies with federal contracts spending money at Trump’s golf properties, USA Today reported, as long they pay the going rate for their memberships and don’t hand over money to seek an official favor or to thank the President for taking action on their behalf.
Lobbyists face no legal restrictions on golf memberships, the USA Today report added.
Jay Vroom, CEO of the pesticide trade group Crop Life America, told USA Today that 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.
Vroom said in a statement that he had not spoken to Trump about the issue, USA Today reported. Those fighting to ban the insecticide said they were troubled by the prospect of his having access to the President at all.
“Not surprising, I’m sad to say, especially with the current President. And I’m tempted to say—and oh, God help me—par for the course,” said Kristen Boyles, a lawyer for the environmental non-profit group Earthjustice, which is suing to force the EPA to ban chlorpyrifos.
Shaub, the former Office of Government Ethics director, told USA Today that even conversations that have nothing to do with the government can raise ethics concerns. The Washington lobbying and contracting worlds are built on access, and that makes 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, USA Today noted. 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.
“This is unprecedented on so many levels,” Perry said.
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