Donald Trump has spent more than 25 percent of his presidency on a golf course.
As storm-ravaged Puerto Rico struggles to recover from Hurricane Maria, Donald Trump made an unscheduled trip to his golf resort in Virginia on Saturday, marking his 69th golf trip since taking office in January 2017.
The golf outing is just the latest in a series of negligent actions by Trump in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the strongest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico in nearly a century. The storm made a direct hit on the island, destroying local infrastructure and leaving the entire island without electricity.
Nearly three weeks later, 90 percent of Puerto Ricans are still without power and about half don't have access to drinking water.
But instead of offering assistance to the island — an American territory, the residents of which are United States citizens — Trump responded to the natural disaster by lashing out at victims of the hurricane and sending angry tweets at the mayor of San Juan, who has issued a series of increasingly desperate pleas asking the president for help.
Saturday, Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz sent a tweet begging the U.S. government to provide clean drinking water to residents of the island. In an unprecedented move, the mayor of an American city had to appeal to the United Nations for help because our own government has failed to respond to the crisis.
Increasingly painful to undestand the american people want to help and US Gov does not want to help. WE NEED WATER! @UN @washingtonpost
— Carmen Yulín Cruz (@CarmenYulinCruz) October 8, 2017
Trump hasn't acknowledged the tweet, likely because he was too busy golfing to notice.
Saturday's golf outing is the 69th day Trump has spent on the golf course and the 89th day spent on a Trump property since taking office 261 days ago — meaning that he has spent more than 25 percent of his presidency on a golf course.
Last weekend, after spending two days attacking Cruz's leadership, Trump capped off his weekend of golfing by attending a golf trophy ceremony. He even banned the media from covering his golf outings to try to hide just how much time he's spending on the links rather than at his desk.
One year ago, though, Trump had quite a different take on things, criticizing President Barack Obama for going on a golf trip while Louisiana was hit by massive flooding from a rainstorm.
President Obama should have gone to Louisiana days ago, instead of golfing. Too little, too late!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2016
As of early August, Trump was playing golf at twice the rate of President Obama.
The head of FEMA conveyed the galling lack of compassion toward Puerto Rico on ABC's This Week: "We filtered out the mayor a long time ago," Brock Long stated. "We don't have time for the political noise."
To Trump's White House, an American mayor begging for help to save the lives of her people is nothing but "noise."
And Trump is letting his focus on his golf swing take precedence over the desperate pleas for aid after a massive natural disaster from his own citizens.
