Donald Trump famously has no major legislative accomplishments to speak of in his 80-some days as president, which has his aides pretty freaked out. But there is one place where he's really shined: leisure time. The New York Times reports that he's golfed 17 times thus far, eclipsing all three of his immediate predecessors. In fact, Bill Clinton had hit the links just three times in his first 12 weeks, whereas George W. Bush and Barack Obama hadn't picked up a club by this time in their tenures.
Remember Trump all the way back in August of 2016: “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to play golf.” Uh-huh.
And then there was his 2015 claim:
"I would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done [...] I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off.”
Close, but it's a little more like, "I would rarely stay at the White House because I'm going to drain American taxpayers dry."
Mr. Trump has spent six of his 12 weekends as president flying to Mar-a-Lago, his exclusive resort in Palm Beach, Fla., on Air Force One. He has not traveled to Camp David, which is about a 30-minute ride on Marine One from the White House and likely less expensive.
Likely A LOT less expensive. In fact, CNN reports that Trump's "on pace to surpass 8 years of Obama's travel spending in 1 year" alone.
To date, Trump has spent six weekends -- and a total of 21 days -- at Mar-A-Lago, his private Palm Beach club. The total estimated costs for those trips are around $21.6 million.
Obama, by contrast, spent just under $97 million on travel in his eight years as president,
according to documents reviewed by Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog. These trips included personal trips - including ski trips to Aspen and the Obama's annual family vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts -- and work trips, like a visit to Everglades National Park on Earth Day in 2015.
Interestingly, Judicial Watch hasn’t been breaking any big headlines on Trump’s travel costs after being all about it during the Obama administration.