Donald Trump Vs Barack Obama: Which President Golfed The Most?

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President Donald Trump loves to compare himself to his predecessor, Former President Barack Obama; in fact, Trump has a long history of being jealous of Obama. Ironically, the only instance in which he has, arguably, managed to outperform the Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been on the golf course. Trump used to chastise Obama for playing golf during his presidency, proudly telling his fans at a December 2015 rally that, if he was elected in 2016, he would never spend a day on the green because the former "Apprentice" host would be much too busy making America great again. 

"Obama, it was reported today, played 250 rounds of golf and he's gonna be in Hawaii, I think that they say, for three weeks," Trump stated, per Roll Call. "How can a president — for three weeks. I don't have time for that. I love golf. I think it's one of the greats but I don't have time." The divisive politician sure made time once he was elected in 2016. By May of 2020, Trump had racked up a grand total of 248 golf days. Obama, at the same point during his inital term, had golfed just 98 times, according to numbers that CBS News' White House correspondent, Mark Knoller, provided to CNN. 

As such, Trump was the clear winner. Statista similarly noted in January 2019 that the controversial leader had, at that point, spent 138% more time on the green than Obama. Trump didn't like the reporting about his golfing habits and predictably took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to air his grievances in a series of tweets, referring to golf as his "exercise" and reiterating, "Barack was always playing golf."

As early as March 2025, reports indicated that Donald Trump's golfing habits were costing people millions. By November, a HuffPost analysis found that taxpayers had doled out $71 million to fund the president's golfing excursions that year alone, pointing out that, should he continue in this manner, it would ultimately cost them an eye-watering $300 million by the end of his second term. Certain politicians have made a point of drawing attention to Trump's wasteful spending. In January 2026, California Governor Gavin Newsom's press office reposted a tweet from Occupy Democrats on X, which claimed that, since the divisive politician's second term commenced, his golf outings had cost taxpayers $110,600,000. 

Newsom's press office added, "Calling DOGE! Is that thing still around?" referring to the ill-fated Elon Musk-headed Department of Government Efficiency, which was supposed to do away with this kind of careless spending. Trump might still be playing golf as often as he pleases, but there's one player he would very much like to challenge on the green, and said player hasn't exactly been willing to join the president for a game. In January 2025, Donald Trump reportedly had an interesting request for Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter's funeral.

The two men were spotted making conversation and sharing a laugh at the event, which understandably raised some eyebrows. In their book, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America," political reporters Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf claimed that Trump was inviting Obama to play a game of golf with him. Considering it's yet to happen at the time of writing, it's safe to say the answer was "no."