For the eighth weekend in a row, President Donald Trump has visited a property that bears his name. He has done so on 21 of the 66 days he has been in office, meaning that for the equivalent of three full weeks of his just-over-nine weeks as commander in chief, he has spent all or part of a day at a Trump property - earning that property mentions in the media and the ability to tell potential clients that they might be able to interact with the president.
And, despite his insistence on the campaign trail that he would avoid the links - "I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf," he said in August - he has made 13 visits to his own golf courses since becoming president, likely playing golf on at least 12 of those occasions.
Trump's properties include:
- Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
- Trump National Golf Club in Potomac Falls, Virginia.
- Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
- Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump has announced that he plans to host the Chinese president at Mar-a-Lago next month.
The one occasion on which he went to a golf course but clearly didn't play golf came Sunday, when he made a relatively short visit to Trump National during which, his team says, he held three meetings. Last week, press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump's visits to golf courses didn't necessarily mean he was playing golf.
"Just because you go somewhere doesn't necessarily mean you did it," Spicer told reporters. "So, on a couple of occasions, he's actually conducted meetings there, he's actually had phone calls. So, just because he heads there, it doesn't mean that that's what's happening."
On every occasion, save the visit Sunday, Trump has spent multiple hours at the club, usually out of view of the media. On some occasions, such as Saturday, social media posts emerge showing him on the course.
It's not clear who was included in Trump's three meetings at Trump National. A post on Instagram tagged at the club on Sunday appears to show Trump and two other people watching television in the course's clubhouse.
If Trump traveled to Trump National for meetings, it raises another question: Couldn't those meetings have been held at the White House?
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