Topline
A New Jersey golf club owned by Donald Trump has agreed to pay a $400,000 penalty over a 2015 case involving a customer who caused a car wreck that killed his father after being served too much alcohol at the ex-president’s club, according to settlement documents released Wednesday.
Patrons play the links as the Whitestone Bridge looms in the distance at Trump Golf Links at Ferry … [+]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Key Facts
First reported by The Washington Post, the documents also obtained by Forbes show the Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck, New Jersey, pleaded no contest to the charges brought against it by the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control in 2019.
The club—which is one of two owned by the former president in New Jersey—was charged with serving alcoholic beverages other than beer from a cart on its golf course and giving alcohol to a customer, Andrew Halder, who already appeared to be intoxicated.
After leaving the course, Halder flipped his car on a highway on-ramp, causing his father to be fatally ejected from the vehicle; he has since pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and received three years of probation.
The $400,000 penalty is a compromise between the Colts Neck club and the state, which had originally asked for the club’s liquor license to be revoked over the incident.
However, the club will still lose its right to sell alcohol from carts on the course as it did with Halder, according to the settlement papers.
The Trump Organization and the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Forbes.
Key Background
Though revoking its liquor license would have caused much more financial harm, The Washington Post calculated that the $400,000 penalty is the equivalent of about 6.5% of the club’s revenue in 2020. In addition to the Colts Neck location, the president also has another golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. This club faced its own troubles earlier this year when the PGA canceled its plans to host its 2022 Championship there in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
