Trump played 20 more rounds of golf in five years than Obama did in eight

I’m a bit tired of regurgitating all of the times that private citizen Donald Trump disparaged then-President Barack Obama’s golf habit from 2009 to 2017. You can search for yourself and see; on the campaign trail in 2015 and 2016 it was a regular part of his patter. When Obamacare kicked in, Obama would probably be off golfing!!! Obama talks about climate change — but flies a jet to Hawaii to play golf!!!!! “You can’t be playing golf when Japan is burning and crashing”!!!! And so on.

At one point — as I have also pointed out repeatedly — Trump told 2016 voters that he would be too busy as president to play golf, a pledge that got thrown out the window almost as soon as he actually took office.

Today marks the end of Trump’s fifth (non-consecutive) year as president. Over that period, he has likely played golf 20 more times than did Obama, 6 percent more golf.

I say “likely” because (as I have also noted before) Trump almost exclusively plays at private clubs owned by his family’s private company and prevents the media from knowing what he’s up to. I’ve tracked his daily calendar for both terms in office, though, and I am confident that my total (excluding days when it’s raining, for example, or when he wasn’t at a club long enough for a round) is accurate. (As for Obama’s total, that comes from the late CBS reporter Mark Knoller.)

Trump’s total is driven by his playing golf more often during his second term. In his first term, he averaged a round of golf every 5.6 days. This time around, he’s averaging a round every 3.9 days.

You can track Trump’s golfing and visits to Trump properties at pbump.net/outofoffice.

That increase in frequency has his cumulative total nearing twice as often as Obama. Obama played an average of 42 days per year, about 1 in every 9 days. Trump’s averaging 71 days per year — essentially a round every five days.

If Trump continues at his second-term pace, he’ll end up having played on 375 days from Jan. 20, 2025 to Jan. 20, 2029 — meaning that he will have likely played golf on the equivalent of a full year of his term in office. He’ll also have exceeded Obama’s eight-year total in only four years.

Trump doesn’t always achieve the things he desires. I’m confident, though, that he’s got the level of commitment necessary to make this one come to fruition.

Photo: Trump on a Trump Organization golf course last year. (Flickr/White House)