Summary
Donald Trump resumed golfing at one of his resorts shortly after issuing a memorandum requiring federal employees to return to in-office work five days a week.
Critics noted this move contradicts Trump’s claim of being “too busy” to golf.
The return-to-office order disproportionately affects women and minorities, as studies show such mandates often increase workplace inequality.
During his previous presidency, Trump’s frequent golf trips cost taxpayers millions.
The new policy has drawn backlash for its logistical strain on parents and perceived attacks on diversity initiatives in federal agencies.
George W. Bush took 1,020 days off during 2 terms meaning he spent ~35% of his presidency on “vacation”.
Obama took 328 days off during his 2 terms meaning he spent ~11% of his presidency on “vacation”.
Trump took 380 days off during his first term meaning he spent ~26% of his presidency on “vacation”.
Biden took 532 days off during his term meaning he spent ~36% of his presidency on “vacation”.
I put vacation in quotes because it’s really hard to say if 100% of those days were pure leisure or if they were partially working, but either way it gives you a rough idea of how long each president spent actually working
For fun Carter took only 79 days off during his term meaning he spent only ~5% of his presidency on “vacation”.
I’m not certain what the president’s “normal” hours/workweek are really expected to be, I kind of assume that is theory it’s kind of a 24/7/365 gig for 4 years
But I feel like it may be worth pointing out that if you work a normal Monday-Friday gig and take no additional vacation, your weekends off would add up to about 29% of the year off.
If you get, say, 10 vacation days you’re now up around 31%
Personally I work 12 hour shifts on a 2-2-3 rotation, so even if I don’t take any of my PTO and depending how the calendar works out on any given year I’m sitting at just about 50% of days off the job (provided I don’t come in for overtime) for my normal schedule, though I technically work slightly more hours than someone who does a normal 40 hour work week.
So I don’t think just looking at raw numbers of how many days off they took is necessarily a useful metric.
How many hours they actually spend working and how much they manage to achieve is probably much more important, though I suspect it’s difficult if not impossible to get real metrics on that
I suspect that trump probably isn’t the type to put in a full 8 hours of actual work, and even if he does get roped into an all-day meeting, it’s probably not particularly productive since they’d have to spend the whole time explaining the basics to him instead of actually getting anything done. And I’m sure the only reason he ever brings work home with him is so that he can sell it to the highest bidder from his private bathroom/copier room.
Let compare this with a 9 to 5 job.
There are ~250 working days per year.
How many days they actually took off of between monday and friday?