Donald Trump the Golfer

[lpetrich]

Trump touts busy day of meetings – then appears to play golf | US news | The Guardian At Mar-A-Lago, of course.

Donald Trump appears to have headed straight to the golf course on the first day of his Thanksgiving trip to Mar-a-Lago in Florida – despite his staff insisting only an hour and a half earlier that he had “a full schedule of meetings and phone calls” all day.

Doesn't he have a clue about what it makes him seem like?

Before taking office, Trump frequently criticised Barack Obama for his golfing habit, tweeting three years ago: “Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the US, President Obama spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter.”

But according to analysis by Politifact, Trump’s time on the green has far outstripped that of his predecessor. The fact-checking website estimates that Obama played 24 times from his inauguration to 13 November 2009, while Trump has chalked up 35 outings.

Data specialist Sophie Germain, creator of trumpgolfcount.com counts a total of 73 visits to golf clubs, but is in line with Politifact in her tally of confirmed rounds. Sometimes the weather intervenes, but there is always lunch.

Articles and References | TrumpGolfCount now has 76 golf-club trips. Omitting the first 7 as before his inauguration, that gives 69 trips.

Modified Julian Dates from Modified Julian Day Converter -- a quick way to compare calendar dates

• Inauguration: 2017 Jan 20: 57773
• Today, as I write this: 2017 Nov 24: 58081

That's 308 days. With the above number of golfing trips, that means that he has golfed once every 4.46 days on average.

Trump Golf Count notes:
Cost to Taxpayer: At least $81,274,972

 

[Ford]

Doesn't he have a clue about what it makes him seem like?

He's a fucking idiot, and his supporters are fucking idiots.

 

[barbos]

Doesn't he have a clue about what it makes him seem like?

I am convinced he does not. That's why he is so good at it.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Doesn't he have a clue about what it makes him seem like?

Seem like to whom? The Trump supporters who read the Guardian? The Trump supporters who hear of this and do not dismiss it as fake news?
He's down to his core support. Tepid supporters who read and accept this as news have long since moved away from Trump. I might suggest he does know what this makes him seem like and he just doesn't care.

 

[ideologyhunter]

He is indescribably great in his pathetic little head. A strange, abnormal, dangerous "leader".

 

[Opoponax]

That's 308 days. With the above number of golfing trips, that means that he has golfed once every 4.46 days on average.

Trump Golf Count notes:
Cost to Taxpayer: At least $81,274,972

So by the end of his term, assuming he makes it that far, he'll have spent about 22.4% of his days on the golf course. That's about 327 days out of his entire Presidency, or almost an entire year.

I used to be in sales and part of my job was to take clients golfing. That happened about once a month, sometimes twice. Call it 1.5. Plus I liked to get in a round on my own with roughly the same frequency. So I golfed 3-4 times a month. Hell, call it once a week. That's about 14.2% of days out of the year I played golf in a job where it was essential.

Were I the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, I think I could've seen my way clear to get it down to about once a month or so. But not Trump, because as he liked to put it on the campaign trail, "It's all gonna be so easy!"

And I guess, when you can spend a quarter of your life at a private resort playing golf that other people are paying for, maybe it is pretty goddamn easy.

 

[James Brown]

It's the criticizing Obama for playing golf, and promising at his election rallies that he'd never want to leave the White House to play golf that's the icing on the cake for me.

Republicans tell me that it's no big deal. But then they also told me that that Obama preferring spicy mustard was a bridge too far, so it's hard to take them seriously.

 

[Ford]

Were I the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, I think I could've seen my way clear to get it down to about once a month or so. But not Trump, because as he liked to put it on the campaign trail, "It's all gonna be so easy!"

And I guess, when you can spend a quarter of your life at a private resort playing golf that other people are paying for, maybe it is pretty goddamn easy.

Something else to consider...Trump thought it would be so easy. Like pretending to run a world-wide business empire when all he was really doing was licensing his name and hosting a TV show.

Now, most people who land in that job - even the ones who thought they were prepared - realize a short time in that it is far, far more complicated and difficult then even the son of a President or a previous VP could have imagined. That's why the White House ages everyone who takes the job.

Trump has taken a different tack. Rather than realize the gravity of the situation and get to the graying work ahead, he's thrown up his hands, said "who knew it could be so complicated?" and set about not actually doing the job. He's not golfing because he really enjoys the game or hanging out with his fellow club members. No, he's golfing to avoid the responsibility of his office. His administration has left large swaths of the executive branch job openings unfilled. His state department, for example, is operating on a shrinking skeleton crew. Even if he'd put people in charge of federal agencies (EPA,Education, Housing, etc.) who believed in those departments they wouldn't be able to do their jobs because Trump is asleep at the wheel. Or more accurately, dozing off in the golf cart.

The very thin silver lining here is that Trump is so lazy and his administration so incompetent that the damage caused might be lessened somewhat, but the fact is we have a President who doesn't want to fulfill the duties of a President. He wants to tweet, golf, and hold campaign rallies rather than actually govern.