6 things you didn’t know about Trump’s Bedminster vacation spot

President Trump departed Washington Friday for a 17-day getaway to his Bedminster, N.J. golf course, kicking off his first extended vacation since taking office. 

The White House has described the trip as a “working vacation” and argued that renovations in the aging West Wing made it necessary.

The president has spent a considerable amount of time at his 600-acre Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, the sleepy, rural town about 40 miles west of Trump’s namesake Manhattan tower. 

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Here are six things you didn’t know about the president’s Bedminster vacation spot.

It has a 16-person police force

Bedminster is markedly smaller and more rural than Washington. Spanning little more than 26-square-miles and home to about 8,000 residents, the town is a far cry from the nation’s capital. 

But Bedminster’s officers will be working overtime while Trump is in town, which is said to spend an additional $30,000 in police costs during presidential visits.

According to the Courier News, Bedminster is considered a “residence of the president” and is eligible to apply to be reimbursed for extra law enforcement and other security activities. 

As always, Trump will have round-the-clock Secret Service protection while he’s away from the White House.

Trump’s property was once owned by automaker John DeLorean

Trump’s golf club is built on the site of the late DeLorean’s estate. DeLorean is best known as the founder of the DeLorean Motor Company, whose DMC-12 model rose to fame for its role in the “Back to the Future” films.

DeLorean bought the property in 1981, though it was sold at a bankruptcy auction in 2000. Two years later, Trump bought the land, saying at the time that he paid “substantially less than” $35 million.

He opened the golf club in 2004. 

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner got married at the club

Trump’s Bedminster golf club was the site of his elder daughter Ivanka’s 2009 wedding to Jared Kushner, another New York real estate heir who now serves as one of the president’s closest advisers.

The couple also reportedly have a cottage at the club, according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

The golf club is home to a herd of goats

A goat herd, as well as a hay farming and woodcutting operation on the property, allows Trump to qualify for New Jersey’s farmland tax break. 

Trump receives the same tax break for another one of his golf courses in Colts Neck, N.J. Those tax breaks may reportedly save the real estate mogul tens of thousands of dollars a year, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

While it’s not clear exactly how much the tax breaks save him, one calculation reported by the Journal estimated that the president may pay less than $1,000 a year in taxes on properties that would regularly cost him about $80,000 a year in taxes.

But the goats also serve another purpose: ridding the property of non-native, invasive plants and other vegetation.

Trump may one day be buried on the land

Trump National Golf Club received approval in 2014 to build a family cemetery at the golf club that could very well be Trump’s final resting place.

“Wouldn’t you want to be buried here?” Trump said in a 2015 interview with the Wall Street Journal. 

But a Trump Organization representative told Bedminster’s Land Use Board in 2015 that the real estate mogul might choose to be buried instead in Florida. 

Trump has also proposed building a larger cemetery with 284 plots that would be available to the public for purchase, though construction hasn’t begun on either cemetery. 

The golf club’s amenities come at a high price

Members of Trump’s Bedminster golf club have access to two 18-hole golf courses designed by renowned golf architect Tom Fazio, a 25-meter heated pool and a private helipad, among other amenities. 

But membership in the club reportedly costs around $300,000. That fee affords members reciprocal privileges at 15 of Trump’s other clubs, including Trump International Golf Links in Scotland and his golf club in Dubai. Notably absent from that list, however, is his Mar-a-Lago club – which is known as his “summer White House.”