So much of the mainstream media is incompetent.
Tapper asked the question referencing Obama and Trump fiddling while the White House is being demolished. But he wasn’t prepared with this fact, which is right on his own website? It’s from 2020 during COVID but since Trump has already exceeded his first term golfing in the same period, I’m sure it holds up. (In fact, Tapper could have had his ace fact checker Daniel Dale prepare a totally up-to-date number, but no.)
Obama played 98 rounds of golf through this point in his presidency, according to data provided to CNN by Mark Knoller, a veteran CBS News White House correspondent who is known for tracking presidential activities. By contrast, Knoller said, Trump has spent all or part of 248 days at a golf course.
CNN’s own count has Trump at 266 days spending some time at a Trump golf course.
Since Trump and his aides often refuse to confirm that he actually played golf during a visit to a golf club, even when he has been spotted in golf attire, it is not possible to definitively say how many times Trump has golfed as President. And some of Trump’s rounds, like when he plays with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, mix leisure with official business.
Regardless, it is clear that Trump has spent more time golfing than Obama. And Trump’s own golf-related “carbon footprint” has been bigger than Obama’s even if you count only air travel.
Through this point in his first presidential term, Obama had made three vacation trips to his birth state of Hawaii for a total of 29,978 miles in the air, Knoller tweeted, while Trump has made 30 trips to Palm Beach, Florida, the home of Mar-a-Lago, for a total of 51,540 miles.
Obama played 333 rounds during his eight years as president, according to Knoller. In other words, Obama played golf once every 8.77 days as president. Trump, conversely, has been at a golf club once every 4.92 days so far.
It’s also worth noting that Trump’s trips – like his Saturday and Sunday visits to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia – have almost exclusively been to resort properties and golf courses his company owns.
In addition to the promotional value of these trips by a president, Trump’s company has generated hundreds of thousands in revenue from charges to the Secret Service, according to Washington Post reporting.
Bessent is a supercilious twat and a confirmed liar, almost as bad as his boss. You literally can’t believe a word he says which is very bad for a Secretary of the Treasury. He even lies about political matters like this, which is beneath him. He should just skip the question and say that he’s focusing on the economy but instead takes the opportunity to give Trump the big slurpy tongue bath he needs on a daily basis.
And CNN let’s him do it.
Update: Philip Bump did a post on this. Here’s an excerpt:
The Obama Golf Counter estimated that Obama played just over 300 rounds of golf as president. That’s probably low; CBS News reporter (and keeper of presidential data) Mark Knoller had the count at 333 over Obama’s two terms. That is in fact more than the 259 outings Trump made in his first term — although spread over eight years.
In other words, Trump almost played as much golf in his first term as Obama did in two. Bessent and the rest of the POS’s in the MAGA media just lie about everything.