White House press secretary Sean Spicer has spoken out in defense of President Trump’s frequent golf trips.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer has spoken out in defense of President Trump’s frequent golf trips.
During a press briefing on Monday, a reporter asked Spicer how Trump’s visits to golf courses are different from the ones he used to criticize former President Obama about.
Spicer responded by saying, “One is, you saw him utilize this as an opportunity with [Japan’s] Prime Minister Abe to help foster deeper relationships in...Asia and have a growing relationship that’s gonna help U.S. interests.”
He added, “How you use the game of golf is something that he’s talked about.”
Spicer then said, “On a couple occasions, he’s actually conducted meetings there, he’s actually had phone calls. So just because he heads there doesn’t mean that’s what’s happening."
The reporter followed up by asking that if the president is, in fact, having productive, high level meetings on the course, why isn't he more open with details about them, and Spicer said, “I think the president’s entitled to a bit of privacy at some point.”
According to a Washington Post report from March 19, Trump has taken eleven golfing trips since becoming president.
The piece also says that at the rate he is going, Trump is set to exceed the number of golf outings made by Obama--an estimated 333 times over his 8 years in office.
The statistic is particularly notable because Trump used to mock the amount of time Obama spent golfing; for example, on October 13, 2014, Trump tweeted, “Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter.”
The next day, he followed up with another post which read, “We pay for Obama’s travel so he can fundraise millions so Democrats can run on lies. Then we pay for his golf.”
