Trump’s summer White House is ‘unacceptably unhygienic’

Expired milk and raw meat found at golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey – where the President enjoys milkshakes and burgers.

Trump teeing off at Bedminster at a 2023 pro-am. Picture: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

US President Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf club, dubbed his summer White House, was found by health inspectors to be so unhygienic it posed “a critical and unacceptable health risk”.

The Somerset county health department reported finding expired milk in Trump National Golf Course kitchen refrigerators and raw meat improperly stored when it was inspected last month.

Inspectors said the person in charge of the Bedminster club’s food and beverage service “fails to demonstrate knowledge of food safety”.

There was said to be a “household microwave” in the kitchen, which was ordered to be removed, while food boxes and ice-cream containers were stored on the floor, when they are required to be at least six inches off the ground.

Handwashing facilities were also not up to standard when health officials made their visit, and dishwashers were not reaching the required temperature for proper sanitation.

The club in 2020. Picture: Seth Wenig/AP

The health department’s grade of 32 points out of 100 made Trump National Golf Course the most poorly rated establishment in the county, which has a population of 330,000 people. Of the roughly 115 retail food establishments inspected, all but two scored 60 or higher, with most in the 80s and 90s.

Half of the 52 violations observed represented critical conditions that can pose a serious health risk.

Online records show six were corrected while inspectors remained on the property. Issues that were not addressed on site were ordered to be fixed within two weeks, with a reinspection set for an unspecified date.

The Trump Organisation and Somerset county health department did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump spends many of his weekends in Bedminster during the summer months, decamping from his club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, when the temperature and humidity climbs.

The President enjoys burgers and milkshakes in the club’s restaurant regularly, hosting members, friends and foreign dignitaries. He was photographed dining there in March with Elon Musk.

Membership requires an initiation fee of $US350,000 ($54,000).

Trump bought the 520-acre (21ha) property for about $US35 million in 2002 and adapted the land to include several luxury cottages, one of which is used by the president.

In 2017, Trump National’s Old Course hosted the US Women’s Open.

Bedminster was due to stage its first men’s major five years later, after being chosen as the venue for the 2022 PGA Championship. In 2021, however, the course was stripped of the event after the January 6 riots at the US Capitol, which Trump was accused of inciting.

Golf Digest calls Bedminster “the highest-ranked Trump-owned golf course” and rated it as the 141st best in America in 2014, before it fell out of the publication’s listings.

The Times