What’s Up With President Trump and Golfing?

Why Do People Care that Donald Trump plays so much golf?

Though a generalization, it is a widely accepted fact that American Republicans tend to play more golf than American Democrats, which likely stems from the traditional and conservative stigma that golf has. Clearly, there are exceptions to this generalization, since former president Barack Obama played golf a total of roughly 333 times during his eight-year presidency. However, consistent with this stereotype, is the fact that Republican President Trump has already spent seven out of his twelve weeks in office in Florida at his private golf club playing golf, surpassing Obama’s first twelve weeks significantly.

While the security and flight expenses associated with playing golf have caused concern during both presidencies, Trump opposers, uncoincidentally often liberals, are armed with plenty of ammunition to call out his self-contradiction on the topic of golf. In speeches during his campaign, Donald Trump that, when he is president, he is “not gonna have time to go play golf.” Additionally, Trump tweeted on October 13, 2014, “Can you believe that, with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.” Whether you see it as a lame or well-founded excuse, both Trump and his aids say that the reason for his frequency of golfing has been to meet with foreign leaders in a more casual environment, therefore putting them at ease. This opinion, however unpublicized, is not newfound, as he tweeted on Sep 19, 2012 that “Obama should play golf with Republicans & opponents rather than his small group of friends. That way maybe the terrible gridlock would end.” While the leaders of the free world are certainly entitled to some free time, it makes perfectly logical sense to take business out of the office, so to speak. The question now is whether or not Donald Trump will stay true to his commitment to utilize golf in a manner that is productive for the country.