If you thought that the initial reference to the White House as a day care center was satirical, think again. The Trump administration knows that Donald’s limited attention span doesn’t allow for too much work at any given time and he certainly can’t take in new information very easily. Former aide Sam Nunberg tried to explain the Constitution to him and had to give up after the fourth amendment. In an effort to accomodate the Lazy President*, Trump’s official work schedule has shrunk visibly from the early days after the inauguration. Axios:
Trump's days in the Oval Office are relatively short – from around 11am to 6pm, then he's back to the residence. During that time he usually has a meeting or two, but spends a good deal of time making phone calls and watching cable news in the dining room adjoining the Oval. Then he's back to the residence for more phone calls and more TV. Take these random examples from this week's real schedule:
- On Tuesday, Trump has his first meeting of the day with Chief of Staff John Kelly at 11am. He then has "Executive Time" for an hour followed by an hour lunch in the private dining room. Then it's another 1 hour 15 minutes of "Executive Time" followed by a 45 minute meeting with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Then another 15 minutes of "Executive Time" before Trump takes his last meeting of the day — a 3:45pm meeting with the head of Presidential Personnel Johnny DeStefano — before ending his official day at 4:15pm.
- Other days are fairly similar, unless the president is traveling, in which case the days run longer. On Wednesday this week, for example, the president meets at 11am for his intelligence briefing, then has "Executive Time" until a 2pm meeting with the Norwegian Prime Minister. His last official duty: a video recording with Hope Hicks at 4pm.
- On Thursday, the president has an especially light schedule: "Policy Time" at 11am, then "Executive Time" at 12pm, then lunch for an hour, then more "Executive Time" from 1:30pm.
George W. Bush started his day in the Oval Office at 6:45 a.m. Obama worked out every day at 7:00 and he was always in by 9:00 a.m. Trump sails in at 11:00 a.m. and is back in front of the teevee at noon. In the history of this republic there is no chief executive who treated the presidency as a part time gig between golf excursions.
However, there may be a silver lining to this: the best case scenario that we can hope for is that the Trump administration is as ineffectual as possible so it can do the least damage. That may truly be our best hope considering the cabal of crooks that currently have their hands on our government.