Donald Trump Caught Golfing After Saying He’s Not On Vacation

Donald Trump insists that his 17-day stay at one of his properties in Bedminster, New Jersey, is not a vacation. However, the president was captured on video enjoying a round of golf just two days into his long break from residing in the White House.

Shortly after arriving at his private golf club in Bedminster, Donald Trump made sure to let his Twitter users know that he had a perfectly valid excuse for leaving the White House for an extended period of time. Early Saturday evening, the president tweeted that the West Wing is currently undergoing renovations, an assertion backed up by the “failing” New York Times. The improvements include replacing the heating and air conditioning systems, putting in new carpet, giving the walls a fresh coat of paint, and installing new wires and cables.

The work is being done just days after a Sports Illustrated article about President Trump’s fondness for golf quoted the commander in chief as calling the White House “a real dump.” The author of the article, Alan Shipnuck, later said that he got a “rude” phone call from White House spokeswoman Hope Hicks. She claimed that the quote was a lie and tried to get him to retract that part of his piece. However, according to Golf magazine, Shipnuck stands by his story. He says that eight or nine members of Trump’s Bedminster golf club, as well as a few staffers, overheard the president disparaging the White House.

Working in Bedminster, N.J., as long planned construction is being done at the White House. This is not a vacation – meetings and calls!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2017

While Trump doesn’t want his stay at Bedminster to be considered a vacation, the New York Daily News reports that a White House official has described it as such. The official said that it would be a “working vacation,” during which the president would meet with lawmakers and aides. Officials refused to say whether Donald Trump planned on playing any golf during his visit, but he was caught in the act late Saturday afternoon when a wedding party spotted him cruising around in a golf cart.

In a Twitter video shared by Sports Illustrated, Trump vacates his golf cart and approaches the group to say hello. He’s wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, and he’s dressed in his usual golfing attire: a white polo shirt and khaki pants. Trump can be overheard asking the wedding guests where the bride is.

According to the Daily Mail, many of the wedding guests have shared photos and videos of their encounter with the president on social media. An Instagram snapshot of Trump in a golf cart was deleted, but screenshots of the image are still making the rounds on Twitter. One wedding guest joked that Donald Trump was “less orange than expected.”

Twitter users responded to the video evidence that Trump was golfing by accusing him of being a liar and a hypocrite. Many of them referenced his previous tweets criticizing former President Barack Obama for playing golf and going on vacation. As CNN reports, Trump once claimed that he “would not be a president who took vacations.”

“I’m going to be working for you,” Trump said in 2016. “I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”

Can you believe that,with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf.Worse than Carter

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 14, 2014

According to NBC, Trump has spent 45 out of his 198 days in office at his golf properties. At this point in his presidency, Barack Obama had golfed just 11 times, while Trump has played the game at least 21 times. It’s impossible to know exactly how many times Trump has gone golfing because his administration often refuses to let the press know whether he hit the links during a visit to one of his golf clubs.

Opinion: Trump’s golf game tells us an awful lot about Trump https://t.co/ZSjFNAJ3lM

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 3, 2017

While many Donald Trump supporters see nothing wrong with the president’s golf habit, Mercury News reports that his “addiction” to the game may be interfering with his plan to “make America great again.” According to a study by three economists, “CEOs who play too much golf are associated with firms that have lower operating performance and less value.” Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell believes that Trump’s golfing is a “self-destructive habit” that may be having a negative effect on his performance as POTUS.

[Featured Image by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images]