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It’s easy to imagine Donald Trump feeling a sense of urgency and scheduling a busy day of difficult work. Major indices around the world have responded to the president’s trade tariffs with steep drop-offs. The likelihood of a recession is growing. Key businesses have announced layoffs. Consumer prices are poised to climb.
Key U.S. allies are turning against us, and U.S. rivals are imposing retaliatory measures. Even some of the White House’s most sycophantic partisan allies are struggling to defend the White House’s agenda.
In case this weren’t quite enough, four U.S. servicemen who died during a training exercise in Lithuania are poised to return home at a dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.
The president, however, hasn’t scheduled a busy day of work at the White House, and he won’t be on hand for the service members’ return. As The Washington Post reported, “A day after seeking to remake the global economic order, President Donald Trump on Thursday is returning to another priority: remaking professional golf.”
Trump will dine with leaders of the LIV Golf tour at his [Doral] club outside Miami, his latest visit to Florida and a sporting event in a 73-day-old presidency that has already been full of both. The trip combines the president’s prized relationship with the Saudi Arabian leaders who own the tour; his regular visits to Florida, where he has spent most weekends of this presidency at his Mar-a-Lago resort; and his frequent mixing of personal business with his presidential office.
I think we’re all familiar with the old adage, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going to Florida for a Saudi-backed golf event.”
Or something like that.
For a president who tends to be preoccupied with camera-ready appearances and the optics of politics, some part of him must realize that it doesn’t look great to take a golf trip after setting much of the global economy — and your retirement account — on fire, but Trump’s doing it anyway.
Making matters slightly worse, all of this comes on the heels of Trump’s recent declaration that federal employees who work remotely necessarily abuse the system. “I happen to be a believer that you have to go to work. I don’t think you can work from home,” the president said in February. “Nobody’s going to work from home. ... They’re going to play golf.”
Well, someone’s going to be playing golf instead of working, but I don’t think it’s the federal workforce.
Let’s also not forget that as a candidate in 2016, the Republican seemed eager to give voters the impression that he’s a workaholic. At an event in New Hampshire, for example, while complaining about Barack Obama’s golf outings, Trump declared that if he were in office, “I’d want to stay in the White House and work my ass off.” Soon after, he assured voters, “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”
After taking office, Trump proceeded to golf rather obsessively throughout his first term. His second term is offering more of the same.
When he spoke to NBC News’ Kristen Welker this past weekend and the topic of a third term came up, the “Meet the Press” host reminded him of just how much work a president has to do.
“Well, I like working,” Trump replied.
Sure you do, big guy. Sure you do.