Saturday, June 6, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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Remember when Donald Trump criticized former President Barack Obama for golfing after the discovery of a second Ebola carrier? And further claimed that Obama played golf so often during his presidency that he should have been a member of the PGA? Let’s compare those claims with Trump’s own behavior.
In the first two years of their presidencies, Trump played golf 2.6 times more than Obama did, and the cost to U.S. taxpayers for Trump’s golfing was approximately $74 million more than the cost for Obama’s golfing. Since taking office on Jan. 29, 2017, and through May 23, 2020, Trump played 266 rounds of golf, costing tens of millions of dollars to U.S. taxpayers. Among the expenses wasat least $550,000 in Secret Service third-party golf cart rentals and over $500,000 to stay overnight at Trump-owned properties.
While these monetary costs are staggering, think of the chutzpah of Trump to criticize Obama for golfing after the discovery of a second Ebola carrier given that, during this Memorial Day weekend (a holiday to mourn and honor the dead), Trump golfed after 98,718 Americans had died of COVID-19.
The difference was in leadership. Obama defeated the Ebola virus and Trump golfed while Rome burned.
