6 Things to Know About Bedminster, NJ, Trump's Summer Getaway

Jackie Onassis rides on horseback in the traditional Essex Fox Hounds Meeting, the annual Thanksgiving Day hunt in Bedminster, N.J., Thursday, Nov. 27, 1980.

Nestled amid the rolling hills of New Jersey's horse country, Bedminster Township boasts an array of parklands, farms, trout streams, riding trails, historic churches, and promotional real estate videos highlighting said features.

There's also a Starbucks off Route 202 that's probably about to see an increase in people stopping to use the bathroom.

There are technically three golf courses in New Jersey called "Trump National." But it's the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster -- situated about 45 miles west of New York City and two miles northeast of the aptly named Whitehouse Station, NJ -- where President Trump is staying this weekend. Just as Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach effectively became a "Winter White House," Trump's golf club in Bedminster, where two of his advisers, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, also have a home, could become Trump's "Summer White House" (or "Camp David North").  

Here are six things to know about the third town President Trump will have stayed overnight in since taking office.

 

1. President Trump Likes the Course So Much, He May Want to Be Buried There 

As WNYC's Nancy Solomon reported back in 2012, Donald Trump has proposed a series of plans over the past decade to be buried at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster. His hope was to build an on-site cemetery for club members, with a mausoleum for himself right by his favorite fairway. 

In 2015, though, the Courrier News reported that Trump may prefer to be buried at Mar-a-Lago, instead. If he changes his mind, Gov. Chris Christie has said it'd be an honor if Trump chose New Jersey as his final resting place.

 

2. Golf Carts Today, DeLoreans Yesterday

The land where Trump National now sits used to belong to John Z. DeLorean, the automaker perhaps best known for designing the gull-winged car in Back to the Future. DeLorean was evicted from the 434-acre Lamington Farm in 2000 after going bankrupt. In 2002, Donald Trump bought the property for $35 million with the intention of building a "world championship, U.S. Open quality" golf course. 

 

3. GOATS: The Goatiest of All Tax Deductions   

The Wall Street Journal reported last spring that Donald Trump receives handsome property tax deductions for Trump National by producing hay and keeping eight goats on the property, thereby qualifying the club for a New Jersey farmland tax break. The goats are there to eat invasive weeds.

Between his club in Bedminster and another in Colts Neck, the Journal estimates that Trump could be paying less than $1,000 a year in taxes on land that would otherwise run him about $80,000. Other wealthy celebrities with homes in the area, including Bruce Springsteen and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, have also benefited from the farmland tax break.

 

4. Speaking of Wealthy Celebrities 

Other Bedminster Township homeowners have included magazine publisher Malcolm Steve Forbes; Robert Wood "Woody" Johnson IV, owner of the New York Jets and a great-grandson of a Johnson & Johnson co-founder; and former New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, who actually had a villa at Trump National.

Mike Tyson, Maryl Streep and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis have called next-door Bernardsville home.

 

5. Like Goats, But Bigger and More Expensive 

Bedminster is dotted with renowned horse farms, including the historic Lana Lobell Farm, which produced four winners of the Hambletonian—sort of the Kentucky Derby for Standardbred race horses. 

According to the Robb Report, Bedminster also has more horse trails than roads. 

Now you know what the hay is for.

 

6. (Sort of) Trump Country 

Though Hillary Clinton won Somerset County, New Jersey, Trump won the actual town of Bedminster by 42 votes (the entire population is about 8,300). That beats his home borough of Manhattan, where he received less than ten percent of the vote. 

If protesters show up at the golf club, as they have at Mar-a-Lago, it's unclear how close they'll get to the president. The clubhouse and his residence are set more than a mile away from a public road. Which, judging by the aforementioned real estate promos, is a key Bedminster selling point.