Fact Check: Claim Trump turned White House lawn into golf course fairway off from the truth

Yahoo

a day ago

Claim:
U.S. President Donald Trump turned the lawn of the White House into a golf course in or around early June 2025.
Rating:
Context:
A putting green was installed on the South Lawn of the White House during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's tenure. President Nixon removed it, but the green was eventually restored by President Bill Clinton in 1995, where it has been in use since.
As spring approached summer in early June 2025, a claim that U.S. President Donald Trump turned the lawn of the White House into a golf course was in full swing online.
Trump's affinity for golf is well known, and a visit from a golf pro to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on June 1 appeared to drive the rumor.
Social media users shared the claim on X (archived), Facebook (archived) and TikTok (archived), some including videos depicting a putting green in front of the unmistakable exterior of the White House.
Others suggested Trump was specifically turning it into a "mini golf" course, while more complained that the project was a gross misuse of public money. For example, one X user wrote (archived): "It appears that Trump is converting the Whitehouse lawn into a Golf Course on the taxpayers dime!"
@hopesparks01 Golf course on the white house lawn. Absolutely despicable. #trump #golf #grifter #fyp #fy #viral #foryourpage #trending #news #viralvideo ♬ POS — Sueco
However, the rumor that Trump turned the White House lawn into a golf course, mini or otherwise, is a fairway off from the truth and is in fact false.
Though the president did meet with pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau at the White House on June 1 and the pro did pitch up to play a hole, the "golf course" on which the two-time U.S. Open champion was photographed is actually a putting green that has been there for decades.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower installed a putting green on the South Lawn of the White House in 1954, where it still stands today, although it was removed for about 20 years.
A 2001 feature in The Irish Times reported that although Eisenhower's "successor, John F. Kennedy, was an accomplished golfer, probably the best ever to occupy the White House, he rarely used the green. In the event, it was finally removed during the presidency of Richard Nixon who, ironically, had been Eisenhower's vice president."
This series of events was corroborated by a document from the Army Navy Country Club Foundation, an organization that maintained the green during its original use from 1957 onward. The foundation said the green was paid for "with help from [the] United States Golf Association" and that private donors also chipped in.
In 1995, former President Bill Clinton had the green restored — a restoration, The Irish Times reported, that "cost the U.S. taxpayer nothing. All of the machinery, materials and manpower were donated."
In mid-February 2021, a feature about the green on the golf enthusiast website Golf.com said (archived):
The current iteration was put in place by Robert Trent Jones Jr. at the behest of Bill Clinton. The idea for a green itself took root when devoted hacker Dwight Eisenhower lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His green — created, along with two par 3s at Camp David, by RTJ Sr. — was removed by Richard Nixon for unknown reasons. When Clinton asked Jones Jr. to restore the green, they chose the spot of Ike's original dance floor.
Further, Getty Images hosts a variety of photographs of former presidents playing on the restored green — the same one on which DeChambeau swung by to play on.
Featured in the photos are shots of former President George W. Bush and his dog Barney from 2003 as well as former President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden from 2009.
(Getty Images)
While Trump is known to be an avid golfer, it is false to say that he turned the White House lawn into a golf course. Rather, it is a putting green that was originally installed in 1954 and restored in 1995, where it has been in regular use since.
Archives, L. A. Times. "Bush Gets Putting Green on White House Lawn." Los Angeles Times, 5 Sept. 1991, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-09-05-mn-2461-story.html.
Cranley, Ellen. "Inside the White House's Sprawling Secret Grounds, Which Include a Hidden Garden." Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/white-house-grounds-photos-trees-gardens-facts-2018-4. Accessed 4 June 2025.
Dwight D. Eisenhower. https://clintonwhitehouse3.archives.gov/WH/glimpse/presidents/html/de34.html. Accessed 4 June 2025.
"In This Handout from the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama And..." Getty Images, 9 May 2009, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-handout-from-the-white-house-u-s-president-barack-news-photo/86858669.
Masters, James. "The President's Club: How Golf Took over the White House." CNN, 20 Oct. 2014, https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/20/sport/golf/golf-presidents-white-house.
Presidents Getting the Rub of the Green on the White House Lawn. 13 Apr. 2021, https://web.archive.org/web/20210413203226/https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/presidents-getting-the-rub-of-the-green-on-the-white-house-lawn-1.327774.
"Professional Golfer Bryson DeChambeau Visits President Donald Trump in the White House." The White House, https://www.whitehouse.gov/gallery/professional-golfer-bryson-dechambeau-visits-president-donald-trump-in-the-white-house/. Accessed 4 June 2025.
Rascouët-Paz, Anna. "Trump Golf Trips since His Inauguration Have Likely Cost More than $18M." Snopes, 20 Mar. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/03/20/trump-golf-costs-inauguration/.
"US President George W. Bush Plays Golf on the South Lawn of the White..." Getty Images, 3 Oct. 2007, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-george-w-bush-plays-golf-on-the-south-lawn-of-the-news-photo/77172563.
White House Putting Green. Army Navy Country Club Foundation, June 2020, https://anccfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/June-2020-White-House-Putting-Green.pdf.
"Why the White House Putting Green Ranks among the Coolest Spots in Golf." Golf, 15 Feb. 2021, https://golf.com/news/features/coolest-spots-golf-white-house-putting-green/.
- YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/U-DfYgKVmEo. Accessed 4 June 2025.