Donald Trump visited the golf course for the 153rd time as President, during John McCain's funeral
Golf and Politics

Donald Trump visited the golf course for the 153rd time as President, during John McCain’s funeral

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Donald Trump paid a Sept. 1 visit to Trump National Golf Club, Washington, D.C., in northern Virginia, representing the 152nd time 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. He has now paid 153 visits to any golf course as President.

Trump arrived at his northern Virginia golf club around 11:30 a.m., prepared to play golf during the funeral for former Arizona Senator John McCain at the nearby National Cathedral. Trump was not an invited guest to the funeral, while Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama were on hand to eulogize their former political rival. Donald Trump has been on a golf course to cover at least some portion of a day for 25.5 percent of his presidency.

Trump was criticized for tweeting from his golf club during the funeral, including about a potential rework of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump has suggested he could exclude Canada from the deal and make a bilateral agreement only with Mexico.

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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.

Trump 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 the founder, owner and operator of Golf News Net.

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