Donald Trump visited the golf course for the 123rd, 124th and 125th times as President
Golf and Politics

Donald Trump visited the golf course for the 123rd, 124th and 125th times as President

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Donald Trump paid an Independence Day weekend visit to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., to celebrate Independence Day and prepare to announce a Supreme Court pick to replace Anthony Kennedy. The visit marked the 122nd, 123rd and 124th times the 45th President has visited one of his 17 golf clubs (and, for most of them, presumably played some golf) since becoming President on Jan. 20, 2017. This is his 123rd, 124th and 125th visit to any golf course as President.

Trump arrived at his New Jersey golf club on Friday, spending some time no doubt playing golf but also having meetings and performing functions of being President.

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The White House doesn't typically acknowledge Trump was even playing golf. That is commonplace policy, particularly when Trump isn't playing with celebrities or pro golfers or doesn't have something to flaunt. Typically, the White House press pool indicates when Trump arrives at his golf clubs, then they are held in a holding location until Trump is done and moves to his next location.

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All but one round of golf has been at his clubs, playing once in Japan in Nov. 2017 with Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and Japanese star pro Hideki Matsuyama.

So far, Trump has been on the golf course or his clubs during some portion of the day for 21.2 percent of his presidency. He ended 2017 with 91 golf course visits and was just shy of 100 visits in Year 1 as President.

The Trump Administration, per typical policy, does not acknowledge that Trump is playing even a hole of golf, much less an 18-hole round. However, if he's going to the golf club for about 4-5 hours, you can be pretty sure he's playing golf. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has asked the White House to provide the names of Trump's golf partners, as well for his clubs to provide visitor logs to get a sense of when Trump has played golf and with whom.

The President is certainly entitled to some leisure time, and golf has been an outlet for most Commanders-in-Chief dating back to the early 20th century. However, the reluctance to even acknowledge that this President plays golf conflicts with his almost relentless criticism of his predecessor, Barack Obama, who played an estimated 333 rounds of golf as President.

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Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is currently a +2.6 USGA handicap, and he talks about golf on various social platforms:

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