Trump Golf Club Flagged For 18 Health Violations In Latest Inspection—Earned Lowest Grade In County

Forbes Breaking News

One of President Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf clubs received a 32 out of 100 health inspection score in May, the lowest grade in Somerset County, after it was flagged for 18 violations, including all three requirements in the “food protected from contamination” category. Forbes staff writer Zach Everson joined Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss.   Read the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacheverson/2025/06/04/trump-health-inspection-violations-golf-club-bedminster/

Transcript

00:00Hi, everybody. I'm Brittany Lewis, a breaking news reporter here at Forbes. Joining me now

00:07is my Forbes colleague, staff writer, Zach Everson. Zach, thanks so much for joining me.

00:13Thanks for having me. I hope you don't regret it.

00:16Well, I didn't eat my lunch yet. So I mean, maybe I have nothing to regret as of now,

00:22but I will keep you posted because we're going to be talking about a health inspection,

00:25particularly one at Trump's Bedminster Golf Club. It was hit with over a dozen health

00:32violations. I want to talk with you about what happened before you posted your report

00:37and after. So let's start with the before. Hit with over a dozen health violations. What happened?

00:43Yeah, so there were 18 health code violations in inspection in early May. Nine of them were

00:50critical. The restaurant scored a 32 out of 100, which is so low that I had to go through and check

00:57the state municipal codes to make sure the scale actually was 200. When I saw I got a 32, I'm like,

01:03there's there's no way. And I used to be a restaurant writer. Like I'm familiar with looking

01:06at this sort of stuff. And I can't recall ever having seen anything that low. So yeah, it was

01:12the lowest score that any restaurant got in that county in the entire month. In fact, said it was

01:1932. There was only one other restaurant that got below 60. Every other restaurant got a 60 or higher

01:24except for Donald Trump's in one other way. I mean, so you have a lot of experience here because in a

01:31past life, you were writing about these types of reports. I mean, nine critical violations. How bad

01:38were they? What did they look like? So there was they got the whole food protected from contamination

01:44category. And there's out of compliance for that. Now, two of them, they were able to correct on site.

01:49And that is something you will often see in health inspections. You know, that's not some sort of

01:54favor to the president's club. They are allowed to correct things on site, although it still will be

01:58flagged as having been a problem. But there was expired milk that was there, raw meat that was stored

02:05improperly in the refrigerator. It was on the shelf higher than the than cheese. It needs to be below

02:09anything that's ready to eat. And there was also a dishwasher that may not reach the proper

02:14temperature. I believe that the temperature there, they have to reach 170 degrees. The gauge on this

02:19thermometer only went to 160. So not even really noticing there if you're not even if the tail,

02:26if it was up to compliance. And then you have a whole bunch of issues involving handwashing.

02:30And there was a sink that didn't have soap, some sinks that didn't have paper towels,

02:36sink without signage. Another one had a bucket in it. And they're supposed to the sinks are supposed

02:41to be unobstructed and easy to use. So some issues we did not get into in the article because there

02:46were a lot. But an employee bathroom door doesn't didn't shut. It was open when the inspector was

02:53there and wouldn't automatically shut. And there was also no covered receptacle in a unisex bathroom

02:58in the law states that any women's bathroom or unisex one has to have one of those. And they

03:03were they were without that. So all in all, just a really awful, awful health inspection there for

03:09Trump's Bedminster Club. So if you're taking a math test and you get a 32 out of 100, I mean,

03:15you don't want to take that home to mom and dad. They're not going to be happy. That is beyond a

03:20failing grade. I mean, what does that mean then for this golf club? Can it remain operable? I mean,

03:26what does that really look like? Yeah, 32 out of 100. I mean, not that my kids would ever score

03:31that low on a test, but I'm sure if they did, it would not be something they would show me it would

03:36be something I would have to go ahead and find out on parent view the online system. Yeah, this was

03:41just this was just awful. And they got a conditionally satisfactory rating out of that,

03:47which, you know, they got requires them to bring everything up to snuff within two weeks. And then there

03:54was going to be a re-inspection at an unannounced time. As a result of getting that first score so

04:00low, though, they would not be able to get an A. They would only be eligible to get a B

04:04until next year when it would be time for the next unannounced inspection, in which case

04:08they would be starting fresh. So they had an unannounced inspection, but the timing I found

04:15interesting because talk to us about when that next inspection occurred.

04:19Yeah, yeah, the timing was very interesting. So we published this article at around, I guess

04:26it was around 830 in the morning. And the inspection started at about 1130 that same day.

04:33Seemed very interesting that the inspector just happened to show up within hours of us publishing

04:38this. Now, we did reach out the day before in advance to ask for comments. So they did have

04:42a little extra time knowing that this article was coming. But it was it was really interesting.

04:47In fact, I checked a couple of times throughout the day to see if there had been any update

04:52and just to make sure the link in our story to the report still worked.

04:56And it was good. I was about to go on a CNN show and I was hanging out at Union Station

05:01here in D.C., which is near their office, just kind of killing some time when the producer

05:06called and said, hey, are you aware that that re-inspection just happened today?

05:10And I, of course, had not been made aware of that and just started cracking up.

05:16I mean, yeah, the time is curious. They said did they respond to you when you asked about

05:22it?

05:24No, no, they they the Trumps did not respond to me at all. They did respond to other

05:28outlets. They told The New York Times when it followed up on our reporting saying that

05:33this was a politically motivated attack, which, you know, standard response from Trump

05:39administration, Trump organization for anything. Not that somebody who has political police

05:44isn't incapable of doing a objective job as a food inspector. But I did actually look up

05:50this person's voting and political donations and found nothing either way. So not somebody

05:57who seems to be excessively partisan there. And then the health department itself said

06:03it does not comment beyond what is in the reports. So that is all we have to go on. And

06:08the reports themselves, I wanted to go back and see what previous ones looked like. Those

06:12are no longer available online. They only have the most recent one is easy to find. The other

06:17ones, I believe, if they are online, you have to do a lot of digging. I haven't been able

06:19to find them.

06:21And so they weren't able to get an A, but now they have a B. I mean, how did they write

06:25that ship? And by how much did they write that ship?

06:29The major issues were all fixed. Again, a lot of them were fixed while the inspector

06:33was on the grounds the first time. It does look like they got the temperature gauge on

06:39the water for the water dishwashers is then fixed. Some of the other issues that the inspector

06:44found the first time were still outstanding. They were mops that were still in buckets.

06:49They were supposed to be air drying. Those were still issues. This time it got an 86.

06:55Which is the lowest possible score it can get to be determined to be satisfactory. So

07:02I mean, it just barely squeaked by. An 86 is also not a good grade. You know, this isn't

07:08like me getting an 86 on a French test and just being blown away that I actually even passed

07:12the thing. 86 is not great. Just did a bit of a point lower. They would have been still

07:18in that conditionally satisfactory area and they would have needed another inspection.

07:22So they barely squeaked by during this free inspection, but this is not the first time

07:27we have talked about a Trump club in New Jersey. We've talked about their liquor licenses. Does

07:33this club still have the liquor license limbo, if you will? Talk to us about that.

07:39Sure. There's a lot going on with this club. And President Trump is on his way there Friday

07:44night to spend the weekend. So after New Jersey state law prohibits people who've been convicted

07:50of crimes of moral turpitude from holding liquor licenses. Now, Donald Trump, the liquor license

07:56is not in his name, but he is the sole owner of Trump Bedminster through about a web of five

08:02LLCs and a revocable trust of which is he is both the sole donor and sole beneficiary.

08:07Um, when he was convicted of a felony, I reached out to New Jersey attorney general's office. They

08:13said they were going to, they were looking into the matter. Um, they decided to deny the request

08:20for the annual renewal of liquor license, instead giving them a temporary license until Trump was

08:26sentenced, after which time there would be a hearing on the case where the onus would be on the club to

08:31show that it's still qualified for this license. The state of New Jersey, however, has just continued

08:36kicking that down the, down the can, down the line. You know, we saw that Trump sentencing did happen,

08:41not that anything came of it, but they've just continued to extend the temporary licenses right

08:46now. They're, uh, serving alcohol and one that is set to expire on June 30th. So I'm sure we will be

08:54talking about this club again then, but Zach, thank you so much for your reporting. My pleasure.

09:00Thanks for having me. Hope I didn't gross you out too much.

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