A playing partner of President Donald Trump has disputed the conservative argument that Trump’s time on the golf course is spent working.
Taylor Funk, who played with the president over the holiday, joined CNN and said that it his recent round was all golf and no work.
Taylor Funk, who also golfed with Trump, says the President did not take any calls or meetings during the game: "It was all golf" https://t.co/ZcL8ddLdWT
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) January 2, 2018
President Trump routinely attacked former President Barack Obama for his time on the course. When pressed about it early on in Trump’s presidency, former Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that Trump’s time on the course was well spent.
“Well, I think two things. One is I think you saw him utilize this as an opportunity with Prime Minister Abe to help foster deeper relationships in Southeast Asia … How you use the game of golf is something that he’s talked about. Secondly, he had a mini-Cabinet meeting two weekends ago down at his club in Virginia, and I remember so many people jumping to the conclusion that he’s going down and playing golf. Just because you go somewhere doesn’t necessarily mean you did it. So on a couple of occasions, he’s actually conducted meetings there, he’s actually had phone calls. So just because he heads there, it doesn’t mean that that’s what’s happening.”
On Trump’s winter vacation he headed to Trump International in West Palm Beach nine times, with his staff on occasion refusing to say if he would golf or not.
https://twitter.com/abbydphillip/status/946019359557914625
According to Trump Golf count, he most likely golfed all nine times.
The work argument has also been parroted around far-right circles as a way to discredit media complaints about the president’s golfing.
https://twitter.com/mflynnJR/status/945717963608297473
However, the reasoning was disputed by Funk, a golfer at the University of Texas at Austin and son of former PGA pro Fred Funk.
“No, it was all golf, he was fully in the moment, and with us … I feel like whatever he’s doing, he’s going to be doing it 100 percent at the time, and he wanted to play good golf. It was a lot of fun, because he actually did play some good golf.”
Funk added that Trump shot even par on the front nine.