Donald Trump criticised for golfing habit after playing 19 times in 13 weeks

DONALD Trump has visited the golf course 19 times in the last 13 weeks. His love of the sport is now starting to become a political problem.

US President Donald trump pictured at his Palm Beach Golf Course over Easter. Source: Instagram

HE HAS been dubbed the “golfer-in-chief” and his stints on the course have raised eyebrows across the world.

But US President Donald Trump is attracting even more attention than ever after it emerged the President has already visited the golf course 19 times in the past 13 weeks.

While the majority of past US leaders have all been fans of the sport, none have played so frequently this early in the game.

According to theNew York Post, the sport is more than a pastime and is potentially good for his business and Golf Digest dubbed him the “Golfer in Chief”.

Thank you to @GolfDigest for this incredible feature! "Golfer-in-Chief" @RealDonaldTrump https://t.co/vpdY4jNbI4 pic.twitter.com/Q5fzH4fpmH

— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) January 17, 2017

The President “has been noisily and passionately promoting his golf properties in every corner of the typically staid golf community for more than a decade” the Post reported.

Mr Trump has long been a fan of the sport and in doing business in or around the course.

The President even brought up a game last month played between corporate executives, even encouraging the chief executive of General Electric Jeffrey R. Immelt to reveal a story about a game they played years ago at one of his courses.

“Jeff actually watched me make a hole in one; can you believe that?” Mr Trump said.

“I was the best golfer of all the rich people.”

Mr Trump even made a point of raising his predecessor’s love of the game during a campaign rally in Virginia last year where he sad: “I’m going to be working for you, I’m not going to have time to play golf.”

The irony hasn’t gone unnoticed in Congress.

Opposition Democrats have long demanded Donald Trump scale back his weekend escapes to Florida and just this week a fellow Republican joined the call for the US president to spend more time working in Washington.

“I’ve had those same concerns myself,” Senator Joni Ernst told a town-hall meeting in Iowa when a constituent asked about Mr Trump’s taxpayer-funded trips to Mar-a-Lago, his members-only resort in Palm Beach.

“I do wish that he would spend more time in Washington, DC. That’s what we have the White House for,” she said, suggesting she was not alone among Republicans frustrated by Trump’s frequent flying.

Mr Trump, pictured playing golf in Aberdeen, Scotland in 2012, has always been a big fan of the sport. Picture: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images

Mr Trump flew to Palm Beach last Thursday where he spent three nights at Mar-a-Lago, away from journalists’ prying eyes amid heightened tensions with North Korea.

He attended an Easter Sunday service at a local church and then flew back to Washington, but not before spending several hours Friday and Saturday at his nearby golf club.

However the White House declined to say whether he played golf.

Mr Trump repeatedly assailed Democratic predecessor Barack Obama for golfing, and in 2011 blasted him as “the habitual vacationer” and accused him of “playing more golf than Tiger Woods”.

Mr Trump’s latest outings were his 17th and 18th trips to a golf course since his January 20 inauguration, according to an NBC News tally.

He has spent seven weekends at Mar-a-Lago in that period.

In comparison Mr Obama waited more than three months after his inauguration to take his first presidential golf round.

— with staff writers