One might hope that a president of the United States would stay on the job seven days a week. President Donald Trump does not — this Saturday, he visited his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, which is one of a slew of golf properties around the country that his business owns and that he has repeatedly visited while president. There are some major crises threatening the United States, from the Coronavirus pandemic to the hurricane that is currently approaching the Gulf coast of Texas, which is a Coronavirus
“hotspot.” In an ideal world, the president might be at the White House, working on developing a hurricane response plan. Trump is golfing.
Woody Johnson, the US Ambassador to Britain, told colleagues Trump had asked him to see if the British government could help steer the British Open golf tournament to president's Turnberry resort in Scotlandhttps://t.co/8debVrNlx1
— Josie Ensor (@Josiensor) July 21, 2020
S.V. Dáte, who works as a White House correspondent for HuffPost, estimates based on available documentation that the total cost for Trump’s golf trips while president has hit $139.8 million, a total that is even more staggering considering the millions of Americans who are currently financially struggling thanks in part to the Trump administration’s own malfeasance. That almost $140 million could have been put towards programs like assisting the millions of currently unemployed Americans, many of whom are struggling to come up with the money needed for basic expenses like rent. Instead, the money went towards ferrying President Trump back and forth to the golf course.
GOLF UPDATE — 25 JULY 2020:
Trump is back at his golf course in New Jersey.
He has now spent 262 days on a golf course he owns in his 1,283 days in office.
It is his 81st day at Bedminster.
Taxpayer-paid golf tab rises to $139.8 million.https://t.co/2nZJqTDg1h
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) July 25, 2020
Trump’s behavior has drawn plenty of outrage. Robert Reich, who served as a Labor Secretary in the Bill Clinton administration, commented:
‘The [President] of the United States is at his private golf club as America approaches 150,000 covid deaths. Never before have we had a president so willfully absent during a national emergency. Yet we have shockingly become used to it.’
The Trump administration has consistently failed to take the Coronavirus seriously enough to launch an effective strategy to curtail the virus’s spread. Only after months of the crisis had passed and about 140,000 Americans had died did the president even get around to publicly endorsing wearing face masks, which is a basic step that is necessary as a first line of defense against the virus’s spread. He’s had the lax “golf-whenever-I-want” approach throughout his whole presidency.
