Donald Trump played golf with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Japan on May 26. He has now paid 191 visits to any golf course as President. So far, the 45th President has visited one of his 17 golf clubs (and, for most of them, presumably played some golf) 189 times since becoming President on Jan. 20, 2017.
Trump is in Japan for a visit with Shinzo Abe weeks ahead of the G20 summit, a meeting of the leaders of the top 20 economies on the planet. The pair were joined by Isao Aoki, a Japanese pro golf legend. Trump landed by the Marine One helicopter to Mobara Country Club Landing Zone in Chiba, where Abe was waiting with a golf cart to take the pair to the golf course.
Great morning of golf with Prime Minister @AbeShinzo at Mobara Country Club in Chiba, Japan! pic.twitter.com/EZeJ8znS51
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2019
令和初の国賓としてお迎えしたトランプ大統領と千葉でゴルフです。新しい令和の時代も日米同盟をさらに揺るぎないものとしていきたいと考えています。 pic.twitter.com/8ol8790xWY
— 安倍晋三 (@AbeShinzo) May 26, 2019
This is the second time Trump has played golf in Japan with Abe, representing the only two times Trump has played golf as President outside of his owned-and-operated golf properties.
RELATED: Why how often Trump plays golf matters
Trump ended 2017 with 91 golf course visits and was just shy of 100 visits in Year 1 as President. In his second year as President, Trump played golf 76 times. All but two rounds 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, then playing with Abe again in May 2019.
FOLLOW Trump Golf Tally on Facebook and Twitter
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.
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.
