Barbara Res, a longtime Trump Organization executive, said Trump appears less active now than when she managed construction projects for him in the 1980s and 1990s.
“He’s working less. He seems to care less about his job now than he did back when I was working for him,” Res said. “Maybe it’s because he has more confidence or a greater sense of power sitting in the Oval Office. He thinks he can say and do anything now, or not do anything.”
She added, “It looks like he’s not even trying, but he thinks he’s trying. To him, all the watching TV and tweeting is work, so he believes he’s on the clock 24-7, 365.”
Leon E. Panetta, who served as White House chief of staff, secretary of Defense, CIA director and director of the Office of Management and Budget under Presidents Clinton and Obama, said Trump’s lack of structured activity reflected the aimlessness in his administration.
“Trump operates the way this hurricane operates,” he said. “There’s a lot of destruction and chaos going on, but no clear path where it’s heading.... It’s very much an ad hoc presidency that relies on his gut instincts rather than any kind of policy process.”
[...]
Earlier Tuesday, Trump defended his weekend golfing in a Twitter post, singling out one of the many individuals who had criticized him.
“The incompetent Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was bothered that I played a very fast round of golf yesterday,” Trump tweeted. “Many Pols exercise for hours, or travel for weeks. Me, I run through one of my courses (very inexpensive). President Obama would fly to Hawaii,” he wrote.
Obama mostly played golf at Joint Base Andrews, about 14 miles from the White House. He and his family visited Hawaii, his birthplace, on several winter holidays.
On Monday, a federal holiday, Trump spent more than five hours playing golf or traveling to and from his golf course, leaving the White House at 9:27 a.m. and returning at 2:55 p.m.
[...]
The president’s tweets often provide a window into parts of his day not disclosed on public schedules. For instance, last week he tweeted what appeared to be a classified image of an Iranian rocket that apparently blew up on the launchpad, a clear indication that he’d been briefed on the subject. His staff also sent out photos of a hurricane briefing in the Oval Office. And Trump often tweets in response to cable news coverage, telling the public what exactly he’s watching.
LA Times
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