Barack Obama (night owl) got to the office at 9:00 am after his morning workout. Typically, he knocked off at 6:30 pm. Then, after 2 hours of family time, he read position papers and fiction until bed at 12:00 am. He hardly watched TV.
George W Bush (not a night owl) was in the office by 6:30 am and in bed by 9:00 pm and he did occasionally watch sports — daytime presumably.
Bill Clinton was a workaholic with meetings and calls into the wee hours. George H.W. Bush worked a robust schedule. And even Ronald Reagan — who once said that "It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?" — showed up for relatively full days.
And then there is the self-proclaimed ‘hardest working’ President, Donald Trump, who boasts that he sleeps no more than five hours a night and is on the go from 5 am until midnight. But that is to confuse activity with achievement. Or in Trump’s case to confuse watching TV and tweeting with hard work.
Trump’s official schedule rarely has anything earlier than his Daily Intelligence Brief at 11 am — and it isn’t even daily. Frequently he’s done by 3 pm. His staff insists that his unofficial schedule has large blocks of ‘executive time’ — but that appears to be nothing more than a euphemism for “we have no idea what he’s doing”.
With that in mind let’s see what his official schedule was this week.
Monday 4.2.18:
9:45 am The President and First Lady host the White House Easter Egg Roll Breakfast Reception
10:30 am The President and First Lady host the White House Easter Egg Roll
2:00 pm The President meets with National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow
Tuesday 4.3.18:
11:00 am The President receives his intelligence briefing.
11:45 am The President meets with the Baltic States Heads of Government, followed by a working lunch
1:35 pm The President holds a joint press conference with the Baltic States Heads of followed by their departure at 2:05 pm
Wednesday 4.4.18:
7:35 — 8:35 pm The President has a private dinner with supporters.
Thursday 4.5.18:
12:30 pm The President departs the White House en route to West Virginia.
2:25 — 3:45 pm The President holds a round table on tax reform.
5:00 pm The President arrives back at the White House.
Friday 6.6.18:
11:00 am The President receives his intelligence briefing.
In summary: 1 egg roll, 2 daily intelligence briefings, 2 meetings, 2 meals, 1 press conference, 1 roundtable. A total of 6 hours of scheduled work (8 hours if you count the egg roll)
During his ‘executive time’: An unknowable amount of television, an indeterminate number of phone calls to cronies, 42 tweets, and not one book or paper read.
And weekends? Fuggedaboudit! They’re for golf — and church (but only if it’s Easter or Christmas).