Trump Defends Golf Outings as Hurricane Dorian Threatens U.S.
Trump Defends Golf Outings as Hurricane Dorian Threatens U.S.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump defended his two weekend golf outings after coming under fire from the mayor of London for hitting the links as Hurricane Dorian headed toward Florida.
Trump tweeted Tuesday that his rounds of golf on Saturday and Monday were “very fast,” adding that “many Pols exercise for hours, or travel for weeks.”
“Me, I run through one of my courses (very inexpensive),” he tweeted.
Trump spent about eight and a half hours over two days at his private course in Northern Virginia after canceling a planned weekend trip to Poland to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II. Instead, he said he was staying in Washington prepare for Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the Bahamas before being downgraded on Tuesday and threatening the East Coast of the U.S.
Trump said the “incompetent” London mayor, Sadiq Khan, should instead focus on “knife crime,” which he said is “totally out of control in London.”
Khan told Politico in an interview Sunday that Trump was “dealing with a hurricane out on the golf course.” Fox Business host Stuart Varney mentioned Khan’s comments on air before Trump tweeted. The two have clashed since the 2016 election when Khan criticized Trump for calling for a ban on Muslims traveling to the U.S.
“He is a terrible mayor who should stay out of our business,” Trump wrote.
Trump’s tweet initially spelled Khan’s name wrong but his account re-posted the messages with the correct spelling in one place and an incorrect spelling in another.
Trump for years criticized former President Barack Obama for playing golf. Speaking at an August 2016 campaign rally after touring flood damage in Louisiana, Trump said, “Obama ought to get off the golf course and get down there.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Joshua Gallu
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