President’s vacation has critics working overtime
It’s an endless cycle: Trump had jeered breaks by Obama
It’s that time of year again: The president is going on vacation, and his opponents are going to criticize it.
President Trump, already under fire for spending so many weekends at his resorts in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey, is set to leave Friday for what aides call a 17-day “working vacation” based at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. His critics are ready to pounce.
“Whenever a president goes on vacation, the opposition always raises a fuss about it,” said Kenneth Walsh, author of the
book From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats. “It’s sort of an easy target.”
Complaining about presidential vacations is a tradition as American as apple pie.
It takes place every summer when a president leaves Washington, yet Trump’s vacation at Bedminster, one of his commercial properties, may draw even more scrutiny — since the president in his first six months in office has visited a Trump-owned property nearly every weekend.
Ethics experts have questioned Trump’s travels to resort properties such as Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., or the Trump golf club in Virginia, saying they amount to advertisements for the Trump brand.
Trump’s Jersey jaunt is “not a vacation,” tweeted Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics. “This is a marketing blitz. Lobbyists & foreign govts should watch to see if HSN live broadcasts any cheap deals on influence.”
Trump’s trip this month may also draw fire because he has been a critic of presidential vacations — at least those taken by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
In August 2014, then-private citizen Trump tweeted, “While Obama vacations, golfs, attends parties & jazz concerts, ISIS is chopping heads off of journalists.”
Trump has disdained even the idea of taking vacations as president. Speaking with CBS’ 60
Minutes days after his election, Trump said, “There’s just so much to be done ... so I don’t think we’ll be very big on vacations, no.”
White House officials said Trump won’t have time for reading lists and other pursuits at Bedminster. In addition to holding meetings, the president plans day trips to promote administration policies.
There is another reason for the timing of this particular getaway. Workers at the White House will spend the next two weeks or more replacing the heating and cooling system in the West Wing, forcing the president and his aides out of their work spaces, including the Oval Office.
Historian Tevi Troy, author of Shall We Wake the President?: Two Centuries of Disaster Management from the Oval Office, criticized what he calls the hypocrisy surrounding commentary on presidential vacations.
“Presidents of both parties deserve to have a vacation,” Troy said. He cited one president who did not take any long vacations — James K. Polk: “It’s important to remember he died shortly after his presidency ended.”
“Whenever a president goes on vacation, the opposition always raises a fuss about it. It’s sort of an easy target.” Kenneth Walsh, author, From Mount Vernon to Crawford: A History of the Presidents and Their Retreats