President Donald Trump isn’t in Washington, D.C. this week (or next) — and it’s driving the liberal media crazy.
So Trump would like to interrupt his get-away to deliver the following message: ‘Don’t call this a vacation.’
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Indeed, the president has decamped from Washington to his private golf club in central New Jersey because the White House is undergoing long planned renovations, including the replacement of a West Wing heating and cooling system.
Trump has repeatedly pushed back on the idea that this is a relaxing August getaway, posting on Twitter over the weekend —
Working hard from New Jersey while White House goes through long planned renovation. Going to New York next week for more meetings.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2017
Trump’s aides are referring to the 17-day absence from the White House as a “working vacation.” They say Trump is meeting with advisers and cabinet members to discuss policy. He is expected to go to New York City next week. On Tuesday, he’ll attend a meeting on the opioid crisis.
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Early Tuesday, Trump touted his plans for the day on Twitter, saying —
I will be holding a major briefing on the Opioid crisis, a major problem for our country, today at 3:00 P.M. in Bedminster, N.J.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 8, 2017
Still, the only sighting of Trump since he landed in New Jersey was a video that surfaced online Saturday of the president greeting wedding guests at his club. Dressed in a golf shirt and a red “Make America Great Again” hat, Trump exited a golf cart to chat with the guests.
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Throughout the day Monday he pushed out messages touting his supporters, attacking Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and highlighting a vote by the United Nations Security Council to slap more sanctions on North Korea.
Getting out of Washington in the dog days of summer is a well-established presidential tradition. President George W. Bush enjoyed his Texas ranch, while President Barack Obama frequented Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. President Ronald Reagan went out to Santa Barbara, California.
Of course, the president never really leaves the job, traveling with a mini-White House of advisers and aides and continuing briefings and conversations wherever he goes.
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Anita McBride, who served as Laura Bush’s chief of staff, agreed that the White House travels with the president. She said getting out of Washington has benefits, recalling President George W. Bush’s love of cycling and other activities at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
“That’s where he recharged his batteries,” she said. “Any of us who have worked in the White House really understands the need for getting away.”
The real world often intrudes on these summer presidential getaways.
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In 1998, Clinton briefly came back to Washington from Martha’s Vineyard to deal with missile attacks in Sudan and Afghanistan. Reagan came home early from a California vacation in 1983 after Korean Airlines Flight 007 was shot down in by a Soviet fighter jet. In 2016, Obama was heavily criticized for golfing while deadly floods killed dozens in Louisiana.
Trump may be out of the White House.
But he’s still working.
The Associated Press contributed to this article