#TrumpGolfsAmericansDie: Trump defends golfing as 'exercise', Internet calls him 'treacherous a**hole'
President Donald Trump isn't thrilled with people criticizing his love for golf while the coronavirus pandemic has been sweeping the nation. He took to his Twitter account on Sunday, July 12, to fire off a mini rant, defending his frequent trips to the golf course as his way of getting some 'exercise', saying he also conducts business while playing. He also used the opportunity to accuse former US president Barack Obama of hitting the links more often than he did, while he was in office.
"I know many in business and politics that work out endlessly, in some cases to a point of exhaustion. It is their number one passion in life, but nobody complains," the president wrote in a tweet. "My 'exercise' is playing, almost never during the week, a quick round of golf."
While he claimed his predecessor golfed more than he did, he also said that the media has a field day about his trips to the golf course, and makes a big deal out of it. "Obama played more and much longer rounds, no problem. When I play, Fake News CNN, and others, park themselves anywhere they can to get a picture, then scream 'President Trump is playing golf,'" he added, even going as further as to defend his technique: "Actually, I play VERY fast, get a lot of work done on the golf course, and also get a 'tiny' bit of exercise. Not bad!" On Saturday, July 11, Trump played a round of golf at the Trump National Gold Club in Sterling Virgin, before paying a visit to wounded soldiers at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He made headlines for donning a face mask that day, something that hasn't been captured in the mainstream media since the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the nation.
Trump has reportedly visited one of his golf courses a total of 261 times since he came into office on January 20, 2017 and has been confirmed to have played the sport on 125 of those occasions. Regardless of the president's rants, his claims of Obama's golfing history was nowhere close to the truth. The former president played 333 rounds of golf during his eight years in office. According to Golf Digest, Obama played 113 rounds of the sport in his whole first term as president between 2008 and 2012. Prior to his presidency, Trump would repeatedly slam Obama over Twitter for playing golf and even said that he wouldn't "have time to play golf" as president, on his campaign trail in 2016. For instance, in October 2014, Trump was shocked that Obama was playing golf “with all the problems and difficulties facing the US.” The country was experiencing the Ebola outbreak at the time, where a total of 11 people in the US were treated for the pandemic and only two of whom had actually contracted the virus in the country. As of July 13, over 3.2 million people in the US have tested positive for Covid-19, while a little over 135,000 people have succumbed to death via the disease.
Social media called the president out for his tweet and also criticized him for playing golf with taxpayer money as more and more people across the nation are dying every day at the hands of the deadly virus. In response to his tweet, a user raged: "President Obama didn't let 137,000 Americans die needlessly on his watch, Spanky. YOU DID. You were too busy golfing and tweeting. Tweeting and golfing. YOU GOLF. WE DIE. #TrumpGolfsAmericansDie."
MeidasTouch.com, a media company that specializes in making impactful political advertisements took to its Twitter handle to post a short clip captioned, "It’s not the golfing that is so disturbing. It’s the hypocrisy. It’s the fact that in the middle of a crisis, he spends his weekends on the golf course as thousands of Americans cling onto their last breath. #TrumpGolfsAmericansDie #TrumpGolfsYouDie." Another user added, "Such BS! You golfed more in 2 years than Obama did in 8. Riding 18 holes in a golf cart is not exercise. That is why you are so morbidly obese. Real President Obama is far more fit, better looking, and didn't sell out our country or our military. #TrumpGolfsAmericansDie"
"Right after the 2016 election, I knew it was going to be bad. But in my wildest dreams I didn’t think the Trump GOP would be trying to kill off the general population of [America]," said a user in a tweet, while another wrote, "If Trump wore a mask as often as he wore golf shoes 100k Americans would still be alive." One user set Trump's facts straight, backing it up with numerical data: "FACT CHECK: Trump has played a whole lot more golf than Obama ever did. You can't gaslight us into believing otherwise! Trump has played golf 261 times, costing taxpayers $137,000,000. At this point in time, Obama had played fewer than 100 times. FACTS MATTER!" Another Twitter user criticized the president for putting the country's servicemen in harm's way, alluding to his visit to the military hospice on July 11."So Trump . . . Do you wipe the blood of US troops off your hands before you go golfing? Treacherous a**hole," the user wrote. "#TrumpGolfsAmericansDie. Grim reapers should become part of the Republican brand. They should troll Trump and Republican politicians wherever they go like angry dementors," another quipped.
South Carolina Senator, Lindsey Graham was also quick to come to the president's defense. "President Trump claims he plays golf fast. Not only is that true, it is a tremendous understatement. I can also attest to the fact that a lot of business is done on the course.", he said in a tweet. "President Trump claims he plays golf fast. Not only is that true, it is a tremendous understatement. I can also attest to the fact that a lot of business is done on the course." In turn, he became the subject of backlash from Twitter users who pointed out that he was kissing up to Trump. "It’s amazing. Sen. Lindsey Graham went from being John McCain’s sidekick to being Donald Trump‘s gimp. This is a guy who is desperate to play number two to somebody who is more powerful than he is. It’s rather sad," a user tweeted, while another describes his words as "This is some pathetic a**-kissing." One user said, "Thought for a second that it was a parody account, it was so pathetic. My god, has @LindseyGrahamSC no dignity? How mortifying," and another added sarcastically, "Lindsay, does Trump leave money on the nightstand?"