1. President Donald Trump is visiting his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, again this weekend.
2. He was calling Mar-a-Lago the Winter White House, but on Friday referred to it as the “Southern White House” because, well, he’s still gonna go down there when it gets warm.
Trump yesterday took to calling Mar-a-Lago the “Southern WH” (not the “Winter WH”) — bc of course he’s still gonna… https://t.co/Xf7LKU1FW0
— David Mack (@davidmackau)
3. On Saturday, the president visited Trump International Golf Club. The White House told pool reporter Ben Kamisar of The Hill that Trump would be “be having meetings and phone calls [at the club] before returning to Mar-a-Lago.”
(A member of the media travels with the president as part of the “press pool” to document his activities for the public record).
4. Trump was at the golf club for about three hours before he left, with officials still providing the pool reporter with “no further updates or readouts yet on the president’s time at Trump International Golf Club.”
6. Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy tweeted this photo of Trump at the club wearing what looked suspiciously like golf attire.
8. It was only after the picture emerged that White House staff confirmed the president hadn’t just been having meetings at the club.
9. “Have been told that the president took meetings and phone calls at the club and may have stepped out to hit a few balls,” Kamisar, the pool reporter, wrote. “But was not given a confirmation as to whether he played any golf. “
10. Trump, who repeatedly criticized President Obama for his trips to the links, has visited a golf course 10 times since he became president eight weeks ago.
Trump playing golf in Scotland in 2012.
11. When media reported last week that Trump had made his ninth golf course visit, White House officials angrily pushed back on the reports, saying the president had been meeting with senior staff at the club.
12. Last week, White House aide Dan Scavino said an article from The Hill about Trump’s ninth visit gave the “wrong impression of @POTUS golfing right now” when he was supposedly “working.”
13. “If you’re at the White House and have so much work to do why do you fly, why do you leave so much?” Trump said in March 2016. “You think you’d want to work, work, work.”
#TBT to March 2016, when presidents leaving the White House was a bad thing
— Brandon Wall (@Walldo)