By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump has spent much of his two-week vacation in Florida golfing. But when he gets back to the White House, there’s a military golf course that he’s never played that he’s eyeing for a major construction project.

Long a favored getaway for presidents seeking a few hours’ solace from the stress of running the free world, the Courses at Andrews — inside the secure confines of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, about 15 miles from the White House — are known as the “president’s golf course.” Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Joe Biden have spent time there, and Barack Obama played it more frequently than any president, roughly 110 times in eight years.

FILE – President George H.W. Bush talks with tennis star Andre Agassi, left, and actor Kevin Costner, right, while playing the 18th hole at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., July 28, 1991. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, File)

Trump has always preferred the golf courses his family owns — spending about one of every four days of his second term at one of them. But he’s now enlisted golf champion Jack Nicklaus as the architect to overhaul the Courses at Andrews.

“It’s amazing that an individual has time to take a couple hours away from the world crises. And they’re people like everybody else,” said Michael Thomas, the former general manager of the course, who has golfed with many of the presidents visiting Andrews over the years.

Andrews, better known as the home of Air Force One, has two 18-hole courses and a 9-hole one. Its facilities have undergone renovations in the past, including in 2018, when Congress approved funding to replace aging presidential aircraft and to build a new hanger and support facilities. That project was close enough to the courses that they had to be altered then, too.

Trump toured the base by helicopter before Thanksgiving with Nicklaus, who has designed top courses the world over. The president called Andrews “a great place, that’s been destroyed over the years, through lack of maintenance.”

Other golfers, though, describe Andrews’ grounds as in good shape, despite some dry patches. Online reviews praise the course’s mature trees, tricky roughs, and ponds and streams that serve as water hazards. The courses are mostly flat, but afford views of the surrounding base.

‘They all like to drive the cart’

The first president to golf at Andrews was Ford in 1974. Thomas began working there a couple years later, and was general manager from 1981 until he retired in 2019.

Michael Thomas, the former manager of the Courses at Andrews at Joint Base Andrews, stands with footballs autographed by several former presidents, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Lothian, Md. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

He said the Secret Service over the years used as many as 28 golf carts — as well as the president’s usual 30-car motorcade — to keep the perimeter secure.

“It’s a Cecil B. DeMille production every time,” said Thomas, who had the opportunity to play rounds with four different presidents, and with Biden when he was vice president.

He said the commanders in chief generally enjoyed their time out on the course in their own unique ways, but “they all like to drive the cart because they never get an opportunity to drive.”

“It’s like getting your driver’s license all over again,” Thomas laughed.

FILE – President Barack Obama, right, talks with former President Bill Clinton while playing a round of golf at Andrews Air Force Base Sept. 24, 2011, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Trump golfs most weekends, and as of Jan. 1, has spent an estimated 92 days of his second term doing so, according to an Associated Press analysis of his schedules.

That tally includes days when Trump was playing courses his family owns in Virginia, around 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the White House, and near his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago, where he’s spending the winter holidays. It also includes 10 days Trump spent staying at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where his schedule allowed time for rounds of golf.

Trump has visited Andrews in the past, but the White House and base have no record of him playing the courses.

Another of Trump construction projects

Andrews’ military history dates to the Civil War, when Union troops used a church near Camp Springs, Maryland, as sleeping quarters. Its golf course opened in 1960.

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The White House said the renovation will be the most significant in the history of Andrews. The courses and clubhouse need improvements due to age and wear, it said, and there are discussions about including a multifunctional event center as part of the project.

“President Trump is a champion-level golfer with an extraordinary eye for detail and design,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “His vision to renovate and beautify Joint Base Andrews’ golf courses will bring much-needed improvements that servicemembers and their families will be able to enjoy for generations to come.”

Plans are in the very early stages, and the cost of — and funding for — the project haven’t been determined, the White House said. Trump has said only that it will require “very little money.”

The Andrews improvements join a bevy of Trump construction projects, including demolishing the White House’s East Wing for a sprawling ballroom now expected to cost $400 million, redoing the bathroom attached to the Lincoln bedroom and replacing the Rose Garden’s lawn with a Mar-a-Lago-like patio area.

Outside the White House, Trump has led building projects at the Kennedy Center and wants to erect a Paris-style arch near the Lincoln Memorial, and has said he wants to rebuild Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia.

On Wednesday, meanwhile, the Trump administration ended a lease agreement with a non-profit for three public golf courses in Washington — which could allow the president to further shape golfing in the nation’s capital. The White House, however, said that move isn’t related to the plans for Andrews.

Presidential perks of golfing at Andrews

When the president is golfing, Andrews officials block off nine holes at a time so no one plays in front of him, allowing for extra security while also ensuring consistent speed-of-play, Thomas said.

That’s relatively easily done given that the courses aren’t open to the public. They’re usually reserved for active or retired members of the military and their families, as well as some Defense Department-linked federal employees.

Thomas remembers playing a round with the older President Bush, a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee known for fast play, while first lady Barbara Bush walked with Millie, the first couple’s English Springer Spaniel. George W. Bush also played fast, Thomas said, and got additional exercise by frequently riding his mountain bike before golfing.

When he wasn’t golfing at Andrews, Obama tried to recreate at least part of the experience back home. He had a White House golf simulator installed after then-first lady Michelle Obama asked Thomas how they might acquire a model that the president had seen advertised on the Golf Channel. Thomas gave her a contact at the network.

Obama famously cut short a round at Andrews after nine holes in 2011 to hustle back to the White House for what turned out to be a top-secret review of final preparations for a Navy Seal raid on the compound of Osama Bin Laden.

But, while Thomas was golfing with presidents, he said he never witnessed play interrupted by an important call or any major emergency that forced them off the course mid-hole. There also were never any rain-outs.

“If there was rain coming, they’d get the weather forecast before we would,” Thomas said. “They would cancel quick on that.”

By ANDREW KASUKU and JACKSON NJEHIA, Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A multi-story building under construction in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, collapsed Friday, leaving at least four people believed trapped.

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Rescue workers are digging through the rubble. The building was in an area of Nairobi known as South C, according to the Kenya Red Cross, which said in a statement that a multi-agency response team was at the scene “managing the situation.”

Geoffrey Ruku, the Cabinet secretary in charge of public service, told reporters that four people were believed trapped.

Safia Ali Aden, the sister of one of those trapped, told reporters at the scene that her brother made a phone call “while under there.”

“We are asking the government to be speedy in the rescue so we can find my brother alive,” she said.

There was no immediate comment from authorities on the likely cause of the collapse.

Building collapses are common in Nairobi, where housing is in high demand and unscrupulous developers often bypass regulations or simply violate building codes.

After eight buildings collapsed and killed 15 people in Kenya in 2015, the presidency ordered an audit of buildings across the country to see if they were up to code. The National Construction Authority found that 58% of the buildings in Nairobi were unfit for habitation.

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and top Iranian officials exchanged dueling threats Friday as widening economic protests swept across parts of the Islamic Republic, further escalating tensions between the countries after America bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June.

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Trump initially wrote on his Truth Social platform, warning Iran that if it “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the United States “will come to their rescue.” At least seven people have been killed so far in violence surrounding the demonstrations, sparked in part by the collapse of Iran’s rial currency.

“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” Trump wrote, without elaborating.

Shortly after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, alleged on the social platform X that Israel and the U.S. were stoking the demonstrations. He offered no evidence to support the allegation, which Iranian officials have repeatedly made during years of protests sweeping the country.

“Trump should know that intervention by the U.S. in the domestic problem corresponds to chaos in the entire region and the destruction of the U.S. interests,” Larijani wrote on X, which the Iranian government blocks. “The people of the U.S. should know that Trump began the adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.”

Larijani’s remarks likely referenced America’s wide military footprint in the region. Iran in June attacked Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar after the U.S. strikes on three nuclear sites during Israel’s 12-day war on the Islamic Republic.

Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who previously was the council’s secretary for years, warned that “any interventionist hand that gets too close to the security of Iran will be cut.”

People wave Iranian flags as one of them holds up a poster of the late commander of the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard expeditionary Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, during a ceremony commemorating his death anniversary at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

“The people of Iran properly know the experience of ‘being rescued’ by Americans: from Iraq and Afghanistan to Gaza,” he added on X.

The current protests, now in their sixth day, have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations. However, the demonstrations have yet to be countrywide and have not been as intense as those surrounding the death of Amini, who was detained over not wearing her hijab, or headscarf, to the liking of authorities.

Iran’s civilian government under reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian has been trying to signal it wants to negotiate with protesters. However, Pezeshkian has acknowledged there is not much he can do as Iran’s rial has rapidly depreciated, with $1 now costing some 1.4 million rials. That sparked the initial protests.

The protests, taking root in economic issues, have heard demonstrators chant against Iran’s theocracy as well.

Months after the war, Iran said it was no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions. However, those talks have yet to happen as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have warned Tehran against reconstituting its atomic program.

Abe Woldeslassie spent seven years in St. Paul, guiding Macalester’s men’s basketball program to heights never previously imagined. The Scots reached a MIAC tournament title game and experienced multiple 15-win seasons under the head coach.

But when the Minneapolis native was contacted by a fellow Minnesotan about an opportunity to get back into Division I coaching, he felt the need to go.

Tim Bergstraser is a 34-year-old St. Cloud native who led Minnesota State-Moorhead to three straight Division II NCAA tournament appearances. In the offseason, Denver University hired Bergstraser to lead its program.

Bergstraser asked Woldeslassie to join him on his staff.

Woldeslassie obliged, noting Bergstraser was someone he knew and trusted. He liked that Denver is a private school with high academic expectations, like Macalester, and is in a large, pro-sports metro area like the Twin Cities.

Woldeslassie noted there would never be a “right” time to leave Macalester, but this made sense.

“I just turned 40 in October, and I felt like if I’m going to make this move, Macalester is in a great place, I’m leaving on great terms,” he said. “And not that it was ever going south, but I never wanted it to get to a point where you overstay your welcome.”

He enjoyed the process of he and fellow coach Conner Nord building Macalester from the ground up, and saw a chance to do something similar at Denver, a program that’s never been to the Division I NCAA Tournament.

“I thought, ‘Hey, it’d be cool if we were the first here,’” Woldeslassie said.

The Pioneers are off to a good start. A program that won just 11 games a season ago is 8-8 this season, already sporting impressive wins against the likes of Northern Colorado and Colorado State ahead of its Summit League conference opener Sunday in, yes, St. Paul.

A tilt with conference-favorite St. Thomas is a homecoming of sorts for many people in the program. Two players and three coaches — including associate coach Spenser Bland, a Plymouth native and Bethel alum — are Minnesota natives.

But it’s especially meaningful to Woldeslassie, for a number of reasons. He was a head coach in St. Paul just last season. He spent the first two years of his collegiate career playing junior varsity for St. Thomas, where he was recruited to by then-assistant coach Johnny Tauer — now a friend — before transferring to Macalester.

Woldeslassie has only seen photos of St. Thomas’ new arena and savors the shot to coach a game in the building on Sunday.

“We’ll have a lot of friends and family in the stands,” he said. “I think there will be a lot of red in the stands of the new arena.”

This may be Denver’s only trip to St. Paul in the foreseeable future. The Pioneers are replacing Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference next season, a move that figures to bring more prominence and visibility to the program but also more challenges. That’s one of the best mid-major conferences in the country.

Early returns suggest the new staff is built to handle it, just another adjustment for the Pioneers coaches who were thrown into the turbulence that is Division I athletics. Woldeslassie last coached at this level in 2018 as an assistant at Siena before taking the job at Macalester.

This was all before looser NCAA transfer portal rules, Name, Image and Likeness opportunities, revenue sharing and massive conference realignment.

“You almost couldn’t have envisioned, in 2018, what’s going on today,” Woldeslassie noted. “I think people would have laughed at you if you said this was going to happen.”

But it’s reality, one that makes quickly rebuilding a perhaps more feasible and more complex at the same time.

“It’s new for all of us, and it seems like every day it’s changing,” Woldeslassie said. “It’s like, ‘This is the rule today,’ and a week from now, that rule may not even exist. So, we have to adapt.”

Denver doesn’t have any high school kids committed for next season, its focus currently centered on transfers, junior college and international players. And the Pioneers won’t be able to afford every player they’d like to recruit.

But Woldeslassie thinks Bergstraser is doing a great job guiding the roster construction and connecting with those already in the program.

“I think we’ve done a great job getting the right people,” Woldeslassie said. “We’ve had some really great wins already this year, and I think we’re going to have a really good season in the Summit.”

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