President Donald Trump continues to spend a huge amount of time on the golf course, even as the United States continues to struggle through a slew of crises that could use attention from a commander-in-chief with at least a basic level of competence. On Saturday, Trump visited his golf course in Sterling, Virginia. According to White House reporter S.V. Dáte, it was the 271st day of Trump’s time in office on which he visited a golf course owned by his family business, and it was the 91st day on which he’d visited his Virginia golf course in particular.
GOLF UPDATE — 22 AUG 2020:
Trump is back at his golf course in Virginia.
He has now spent 271 days on a golf course he owns in his 1,311 days in office.
It is his 91st day on the course at Sterling.
Taxpayer-paid golf tab remains at $142 million.https://t.co/2nZJqTDg1h
— S.V. Dáte (@svdate) August 22, 2020
An NBC news crew captured video footage of the president on the course this Saturday, which reporter Kelly O’Donnell shared on Twitter. She noted that the footage, which was not super clear, was captured from an “extreme distance.”
The president is at his Virginia golf property today. Our @NBCNews crew captured these images from an extreme distance. pic.twitter.com/oFdYsm1nak
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) August 22, 2020
Trump has defended his golf habits in the past. In 2016, he claimed that he was “not going to have time to go play golf” if he was elected president, but he’s proved apparently determined to make time for golfing, indicating that previous claim of some determined commitment to a tough work schedule to be a pretty clear lie.
Recently, Trump claimed that Barack Obama golfed more than Trump currently does when he was in office as president — but that’s a lie. It’s outrageous for the president of the United States to prove so egomaniacal and so willfully disconnected from the facts that he makes this brazenly false claim. Trump tweeted:
‘I know many in business and politics that work out endlessly, in some cases to a point of exhaustion. It is their number one passion in life, but nobody complains. My ‘exercise’ is playing, almost never during the week, a quick round of golf. Obama played more and much longer rounds, no problem.’
…rounds, no problem. When I play, Fake News CNN, and others, park themselves anywhere they can to get a picture, then scream “President Trump is playing golf.” Actually, I play VERY fast, get a lot of work done on the golf course, and also get a “tiny” bit of exercise. Not bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 12, 2020
His claim that Obama golfed more is, again, a lie — by May, Trump had visited the golf course more than 2 and a half times more than Obama had by the same point of his presidency. Trump may also claim that he’s “quick” on the golf course, but the reality is that he’s visited one of his courses on about one out of every five days of his time in office so far.
