As the novel coronavirus cases in the U.S. surpassed 1.6 million, President Donald Trump went golfing at his private golf club in Virginia, on Saturday. Irked by this, several social media users dug into Trump's old tweets and comments, several of which criticized President Barack Obama for doing the same.
Trump last played golf more than two months ago, on March 8, at his private golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Three days later, on March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global 'pandemic'.
As the U.S. marked the Memorial Day weekend with restrictions eased throughout the country, Trump took a 35-minutes drive from the White House to his private golf club in Sterling, Virginia. He was dressed in a white shirt, white cap and black trousers. Although members of the secret service wore masks, Trump and his golf partners did not.
On Friday, the White House coronavirus advisor Deborah Birx said that sports like golf can be played if one practice social distancing and take other precautions, like not touching flags, AFP reported. But she warned against the high number of coronavirus cases in Washington. The state has reported over 20,000 Covid-19 cases and 1,050 deaths, according to John Hopkins University.
At his golf outing in March Trump had hosted the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago. Right after that Bolsonaro and his communications secretary Fabio Wajngarten tested positive for coronavirus.
Trump Slams Obama for Playing Golf
In a 2014 tweet, Trump called Obama worse than President Jimmy Carter for playing golf in spite of "the problems and difficulties facing the U.S.". Ten days later, he tweeted that although Obama had a meeting on the Ebola outbreak, he "decided to play golf".
In 2014, while talking to Fox News, he said that as a President, Obama's golf outing "sends the wrong signal". And as a President, Obama should have given up golf and should "really focus on the job", according to Trump. There are numerous other tweets of Trump criticizing Obama for playing golf.
Throughout his 2016 campaign, Trump slammed Obama for playing 250 rounds of golf in his presidency. According to him, if he was President he wouldn't get time to play golf. However, during his three-and-a-half years in office, Trump has golfed 265 times, according to the Golf News Net, higher than the number of times Obama played in twice the time.
Trump drew intense criticism online for playing golf at a time when the number of Covid-19 cases in the country has surpassed 1.6 million and fatalities have neared 100,000.
