What happened
President Donald Trump plans to visit Ireland next month to attend the Irish Open golf tournament at his golf course in Doonbeg, County Clare, according to a White House official. He is scheduled to be there on Sept. 12 and 13 and will join an event with U.S. embassy workers and business officials.
Why it matters
The trip blurs the line between official business and travel in ways that can benefit his family business. Trump has leveraged his second term to pad his family’s profits, and this September trip is the most recent example.
What to watch
Trump’s course at Doral in South Florida is scheduled to host the Cadillac Championship in March 2028. He has also talked about his course in Turnberry, Scotland, hosting the British Open, though that faces major logistical hurdles.
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Trump’s planned trip to Ireland is the latest instance of him traveling to a property he owns for an event that mixes personal and official duties. Last summer, he went to Scotland for five days to golf at Turnberry and inaugurated a new course in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, while also discussing trade with then-British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The White House called that trip a working trip, a pattern that may continue with the Ireland visit.
The trip comes just after Trump tries to rally support for Republicans in the November elections, with the GOP holding its first-ever national convention ahead of the midterms in Dallas on Sept. 9-10. Trump has previously criticized Barack Obama for flying long distances to play golf, saying Obama flew to Hawaii on Air Force One for a round, but now he is doing the same. His own longest stretch of downtime last year was at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, which still included visits from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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