As President Trump Begins 17-Day Getaway to His Golf Club, See All the Times He Mocked Obama's Vacations

Tierney McAfee
Updated

As a private citizen, Donald Trump repeatedly criticized President Barack Obama throughout his eight years in office for taking too many vacations, indulging in too many rounds of golf and playing fast and loose with taxpayer dollars during his downtime.

Since his inauguration, however, President Trump has made a habit of costly weekend getaways to his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and is already on pace in his first year in office to surpass Obama’s spending on travel for his entire eight years, according to an April report from CNN.

Now, the man who once asked “What’s the point?” of taking vacations is heading to his Bedminster golf course in New Jersey for a 17-day getaway, according to the Associated Press.

After moving up his departure time by 30 minutes to 3:15 p.m. on Friday, the president boarded Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House at 3:41 pm. Following behind him were new Chief of Staff John Kelly and Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, according to a pool report.

The group took Marine One to Joint Based Andrews, where a small AF1 was waiting to whisk the president away to Bedminster. Daughter and advisor to the president Ivanka Trump was already on the plane before POTUS arrived, a pool report said.

The president, wearing a dark suit, white shirt and red tie, deplaned in Morristown, New Jersey, holding granddaughter Arabella’s hand with grandson Joseph walking alongside. Ivanka followed with son Theodore.

Trump’s frequent travel as president contradicts his campaign trail promise that he “would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done” — and his many tweets mocking Obama for taking vacations.

Take a look at the many sneering statements he’s tweeted on the subject:

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A May analysis by the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch found that Obama spent nearly $100 million on travel in his eight years in office. Trump’s trips during his first 80 days alone have cost $20 million, according to CNN.

In addition to criticizing Obama’s vacations, Trump also frequently called out the former president on Twitter for spending too much time on the golf course.

Trump trotted out the criticism on the campaign trail as well, promising voters that, if elected, “I’m going to be working for you, I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”

According to Politifact‘s Trump Golf Tracker, the president has already outpaced Obama in the amount of time he spends on the green. As of Aug. 1 in the first year of both men’s presidencies, Trump played golf 21 times to Obama’s 11.