Elected leaders from Israel to Iowa have visited Donald Trump’s various properties 145 times since his inauguration last year, according to a new report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), a political watchdog group.
Trump’s luxury resorts have offered the chief executive an unusual political arena – and a source of profit. A Guardian analysis of campaign finance records found that US political campaigns and committees spent at least $1.3m at Trump properties since January 2025.
But that only accounts for a small portion of Trump’s likely proceeds. Foreign governments and private corporations are not required to disclose their spending.
Trump has called his most frequented property, Mar-a-Lago, “as close to paradise as I’m going to get”. And his Republican coterie have been lucky to share in it.
Florida congresswoman Kat Cammack booked Mar-a-Lago for her record-breaking fundraiser earlier this month. Her communications director Andrew Espitallier said that the resort’s oceanside appeal made it an easy choice.
“It’s warm, it’s beautiful, people love it,” Espitallier said, adding that there wasn’t necessarily a political angle to their venue choice – but “if we can be honest, Trump does have a very large sway in the Republican party.”
The Republican National Committee and Maga Inc have been responsible for the majority of the party’s spending at Trump properties in 2025, paying a total of $985,449 over 39 different occasions. This is likely an undercount due to how the data is reported.
“President Trump has turned his properties into a hub for his allies and his own political committees to raise money, line his pockets and curry favor,” said Rebecca Jacobs, a research manager at Crew. She said that buying presidential access was nothing new: “But now wealthy donors can pour money directly into Trump’s private businesses to do so.”
Trump Hotel in Washington was Trump’s most-visited property during his first term. Following its 2022 closure, business has moved south to Mar-a-Lago, where the club’s membership fees have jumped from $100,000 in 2016 to $1m in 2024.
Traditionally, presidents have divested from their business interests before assuming office. Jimmy Carter famously put his peanut farm into a blind trust to avoid conflict of interest violations while serving as president.
But Trump has embraced his suite of luxury resorts and golf clubs as an executive asset.
“Trump has established these places as an extension of his administration,” said Walker Davis, research director at Crew. “By visiting and promoting his properties, and talking about them in his official remarks, Trump is conveying to foreign governments and special interests that it is a priority, for him, for people to patronize his businesses.”
A White House spokesperson told the Guardian that Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children, and said that there are no conflicts of interest.
“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public – which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office,” the spokesperson said.
Unlike Carter, Trump’s assets are not in a blind trust; he placed many of his assets into a trust managed by his oldest son.
People who can afford the exorbitant membership fees have enjoyed exclusive access to the president, who visited Mar-a-Lago 76 times in his second term, Crew found, while taxpayers picked up the hefty security bill.
More than 50 special interest groups have paid to rent or cater events at Trump properties since January 2025, according to Crew’s analysis, which uses event announcements, government disclosures and social media to track the president’s activity.
Much of the corporate spending has coalesced around golf, Crew data shows.
Lockheed Martin bankrolled the “Freedom Invitational” at Trump National Golf Club in Potomac. LIV Golf, a Saudi-backed league, held a tournament at Trump’s Bedminster course. And an Emirati shipping company co-sponsored an amateur open at Trump’s luxury course in Dubai.
None of the groups responded to Guardian inquiries about their engagements at Trump properties. The Guardian could not independently verify their spending.
US anti-corruption legislation requires US special interest groups and political campaigns to disclose their expenditures, offering a small window into the money spent at Trump’s private properties.
But foreign governments and business groups are not subject to the same transparency laws.
“We know this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Michael Beckel, Money in Politics Reform Director at IssueOne, a bipartisan group dedicated to tracking issues of money in politics. “We might never get a full accounting of all the money that Trump’s family and his companies have made from his time in the White House, and that’s deeply troubling.”
Foreign government officials have regularly decamped to Florida for high-level meetings and social events with the president. Israeli diplomats topped the list, with 10 visits to Trump properties in the past year, according to Crew. Argentina’s top brass, including president Javier Milei, visited nine times.
Weeks before headlining at a conservative action gala at Mar-a-Lago, Milei secured a $20bn loan from Trump.
Savvy operators rarely state the policy benefits of spending or socializing at Trump properties, but on occasion, special interest groups have pitched their events as coveted opportunities for presidential access.
“Given Trump’s victory,” a Mar-a-Lago event announcement published by The Seasonal Employer Pac reads, “we were very fortunate to have secured a spot on their calendar, especially a night where there is a decent chance President Trump will be there.”
The group, which lobbies on behalf of seasonal foreign workers, offered attendees special rates on Mar-a-Lago hotel rooms ($395 a night for a regular room or $595 for a one bedroom suite), and $1,500 tickets to a poolside cocktail hour and ballroom dinner. The flyer emphasized: “President Trump resides on the property and frequently interacts with guests.”
Gray Delaney, managing director of the Seasonal Employment Alliance, told the Guardian that the group was “honored to host our annual SEA gathering at this stunning property, and our members [were] thrilled to attend”.
Two weeks after SEA’s March fundraiser, the Trump administration announced new slots for the group’s preferred H2-B visas, which had previously stalled. The Trump Organization requested 184 foreign worker visas through the same H-2B program in 2025, according to data from the US Department of Labor.
In September, the group installed Trump’s personal visa filing agent and Mar-a-Lago member Peter Petrina as its board chair. “Given how critical the Trump administration’s support of our short-term and permanent cap relief options is, Petrina is the perfect man to lead us through the remainder of Trump’s presidency,” a board announcement read.
Jon Golinger, an attorney and Democracy Advocate for the anti-corruption watchdog Public Citizen, said there’s no precedent for this level of presidential profiteering or self-dealing in modern history.
“There are already plenty of laws on the books and in the constitution that effectively say: ‘If you want to be president, you shouldn’t own properties around the world where anyone who wants something from you can give you money,” Golinger said. “Because that at least looks, to the American people, like you’re trying to enrich yourself and work for the people who pay you off, and not for us.”
There have been some efforts to investigate Trump for possible violations of the emoluments clauses – a set of constitutional provisions that bar the president from accepting payments from domestic and foreign groups while in office.
Crew has led the charge on a few accounts, but Trump is likely shielded from prosecution by presidential immunity while in office.
Golinger said that other people in Trump’s orbit could face legal action for campaign finance violations or be investigated under state laws against bribery and corruption. But he acknowledged that for now, enforcement seemed unlikely.
“The people in charge of enforcement are either asleep at the wheel or wearing blindfolds,” he said.
In the meantime, Trump appears happy to keep hosting.
“Think of it, we have the World Cup coming … And we have UFC at the White House, by the way, on June 14th,” he said to a crowd gathered for the American Business forum in Miami.
Last year, he shipped yellow striped umbrellas from Mar-a-Lago to beautify the White House lawn.
“I’m sort of happy the way things worked out. You know? It’s turned out to be as good as it could be.”
