Trump defends playing golf in rambling Twitter rant as US coronavirus death toll nears 100,000

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Donald Trump has defended his decision to play golf twice over the Memorial Day weekend as the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic continues to mount.

In a series of rambling tweets, the president argued that he played in order to “get outside” for “a little exercise”, before complaining about the media scrutiny.

He then attempted to deflect attention away towards former vice president Joe Biden, and former president Barack Obama, accusing the latter of extravagant trips to Hawaii to play golf.

The US is currently nearing the grim milestone of 100,000 officially recorded deaths from Covid-19.

Mr Trump began the series of tweets by again targetting his favourite sparring partner — the “Fake & Totally Corrupt News” — claiming they did not say that this was his first game of golf in three months, a fact noted in many headlines and opening paragraphs.

Seeming to either miss, or ignore, the point of the outrage that he golfed as the number of American fatalities from the coronavirus pandemic approached six figures, the president then claimed the “usual ‘hit’ pieces” would’ve been run even if he’d waited three years before his return to the course.

Saying that the press doesn’t mention “Sleepy Joe’s poor work ethic” or the amount of time his predecessor spent playing golf, Mr Trump barrelled on failing to realise or acknowledge that as the current president, media scrutiny is correctly focussed on his actions during a time of crisis.

Rounding on Mr Obama, Mr Trump accused him of “often flying to Hawaii in a big, fully loaded 747, to play”.

“He also played moments after the brutal killing by ISIS of a wonderful young man,” he continued. ”Totally inappropriate — and it was me who shattered 100% of the ISIS Caliphate. I was left a MESS!”

The Obamas would take an annual vacation in Hawaii over Christmas, flying there on Air Force One. During the vacations Mr Obama would often play golf.

Mr Trump has complained on numerous occasions about the amount of time that Mr Obama spent playing golf, and famously promised that he would not play once elected president.

In August 2016, he said: “I’m going to be working for you. I’m not going to have time to go play golf.”

During his eight years in office, Mr Obama is believed to have played golf on approximately 330 occasions. Mr Trump has clocked up 251 daytime visits to golf clubs since inauguration, with evidence of playing golf on at least 119 of those visits.

There was no response from Mr Obama, but Mr Biden had already tweeted: “The presidency is about a lot more than tweeting from your golf cart. It requires taking on the ultimate responsibility for the biggest decisions in the world. Donald Trump simply wasn’t prepared for that. I promise you I will be.”

Attacking presidents for the amount of time spent on the golf course is nothing new, as any living president will confirm, but while it is often acknowledged that the president is never off duty, timing and optics remain important.

The US continues to lead the world in the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19, recording 1.65 million cases and 97,724 deaths by Memorial Day.