No time to go play golf

Martin Pengelly on Trump’s fun day out:

Early on a fine morning in Washington DC, the president was seen by reporters “in his typical golf wear of white polo shirt and white baseball cap … before he departed the White House” for an undisclosed location. Secret service agents accompanying the president were photographed wearing masks. Trump was not seen to cover his face.

The agents protect Trump; Trump deliberately puts the agents at risk.

As of Saturday morning, more than 1.6m cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed in the US, with the death toll approaching 100,000.

Trump’s fondness for golf has been a constant source of controversy, not least for its cost to the taxpayer and its benefit to his family business.

Famously, on the campaign trail in 2016 he told supporters: “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”

But in fact he’s found time to play golf more than 200 times.

When Barack Obama was president, Trump often criticised him for the amount of time he spent on the fairways. On Saturday, even as Trump travelled to his course in Virginia, a tweet from October 2014 was much remarked upon.

It said: “President Obama has a major meeting on the NYC Ebola outbreak, with people flying in from all over the country, but decided to play golf!”

It’s ok when white guys do it.

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