President Donald Trump rubbed shoulders with celebrity golfers at the PGA Tour at his Doral resort near Miami, Florida, this weekend amid brutal approval ratings over the economy and war in Iran.
The president viewed the event from a spectator’s box Sunday and watched golfer Cameron Young’s final shot from the 18th hole. Video showed onlookers filming the president as he arrived, and a video posted by White House spokesperson Margo Martin showed him waving to a large crowd of cheering supporters at the event. As the president pumped a fist, a chant of “USA!” broke out from the crowd of several hundred people.
Pictures and videos also showed that the president's two adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, attended the Tour along with Eric's wife, Lara Trump, and the couple's two children. Trump, an avid golfer, golfed with players at the tournament over the weekend, according to a CBS announcer.
Security Incident at the Tournament
A week on from the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a man was arrested at the tournament Saturday by Secret Service for being disruptive and getting in a physical altercation with an agent, Fox News reported. "During the encounter, the individual became disruptive and failed to comply with lawful orders," Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Townsend told the news outlet. "He then made physical contact with a member of the Secret Service and was taken into custody without further incident."
Return of PGA to Trump Properties
The PGA Tour hasn’t been at one of Trump’s properties since 2016, when the Cadillac brand ceased sponsoring the cup and the championship moved away from Doral to avoid the stigma around the Trump brand. That brand became controversial early on into the first Trump presidency due to the frequency with which Trump and his family used them for GOP events and encouraged those seeking Trump’s favor to spend money at them.
But the brands returned in 2026, as Trump’s second presidency reaches the halfway point amid an unpopular war in Iran, the resulting gas and fuel crisis, and an economy that hasn’t been able to shake off Covid-era price hikes at a speed promised by the Republican Party.
Iran War and Economic Pressures
Trump’s appearance coincided with near total silence from the White House regarding the war with Iran, which is now entering month three with no end in sight. The White House has now admitted that talks once being held in Pakistan and headed up by Vice President JD Vance have broken down. For the first time on Sunday, Tehran issued a deadline for peace talks to end after the parties blew past several of Trump’s deadlines.
Part of the return is due to the collapse of LIV Golf, the Saudi-funded partnership Trump and his family sought to promote as a successor or competitor to the PGA Tour, hosting its events and tournaments at Trump Organization properties. The Saudi Public Investment Fund announced that it would stop funding the LIV tournament at the end of 2026, likely sealing the fate of the program.
His attendance on Sunday came as gas prices passed $4.46 a gallon nationally for low-grade fuel, and experts took to the Sunday shows to warn that gas prices and jet fuel costs in particular would probably keep rising over the summer travel season.
Expert Warnings on Fuel Costs
Chevron’s CEO Mike Wirth appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday and pushed back against claims from the White House that price shocks would be short-lived. "The shock absorbers are being drained out of the system, which means there's this upward pressure on price, because supply is getting tighter and the ability to resupply is getting more difficult, and that increases the likelihood of volatility," said Wirth.
He added that jet fuel, where price hikes are now being blamed for suddenly pushing the long-struggling budget airline Spirit out of business, is likely to keep rising in price over the summer months. The rising costs could cause many families to scale back or cancel summer vacations altogether. Still, an annual global travel survey conducted in April found that 51 percent of Americans plan to take some form of international travel this summer.
"It’s not flowing today. So, we are seeing jet fuel tighten very quickly in Europe, in Asia, and we’re seeing airlines announce adjustments in their flight schedules," Wirth said. "I think aviation is clearly an area where it’s going to probably get worse over the next few weeks."
