President Joe Biden is spending far less time on the golf course than former President Donald Trump.
As of Sunday, after Biden played two weekend rounds in Delaware, the current president had logged nine golf outings, compared with at least 36 for Trump at the same point in his presidency, according to former CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller. Former President Barack Obama had golfed 20 times at this juncture, and former President George W. Bush seven, Knoller noted in a tweet.
Trump criticised Obama for the amount of golf he played and infamously said in 2016 that “I’m not going to have time to go play golf.” Yet he was able to clear his calendar for at least 289 rounds while in office, according to a HuffPost tally in late December 2020.
Golf News Net reported that Trump played 308 times in his four years as president. (Knoller previously reported that Obama played 333 times in eight years as president.)
Many of Trump’s outings were at his own resorts, which allowed him to profit from his leisure. He left taxpayers footing the bill for more than $151.5 million in travel and security costs for his hobby, HuffPost has reported.
Trump even bragged about winning a club golf tournament that he didn’t participate in.