Day 354: Report: Trump Barely Works
White House builds more TV and Twitter time into Trump’s schedule.
Per an Axios report, in less than a year, Donald Trump’s schedule has regressed from a moderately busy day into doing virtually nothing besides watching TV and tweeting.
President Trump is starting his official day much later than he did in the early days of his presidency, often around 11am, and holding far fewer meetings, according to copies of his private schedule shown to Axios. This is largely to meet Trump’s demands for more “Executive Time,” which almost always means TV and Twitter time alone in the residence, officials tell us.
“Executive Time” sounds like the grown-up version of a child’s “Free Time.”
The schedule says Trump has “Executive Time” in the Oval Office every day from 8am to 11am, but the reality is he spends that time in his residence, watching TV, making phone calls and tweeting. Trump comes down for his first meeting of the day, which is often an intelligence briefing, at 11am.
Even when he finally leaves the residence, he’s doing basically the same thing, as he’s able to watch “cable news in the dining room adjoining the Oval” before heading back to the residence for another helping of TV.
Almost as if Trump was a college student, Axios was able to find full days of Trump’s schedule where he had virtually nothing on the calendar besides spaced-out classes:
On Tuesday, Trump has his first meeting of the day with Chief of Staff John Kelly at 11am. He then has “Executive Time” for an hour followed by an hour lunch in the private dining room. Then it’s another 1 hour 15 minutes of “Executive Time” followed by a 45 minute meeting with National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Then another 15 minutes of “Executive Time” before Trump takes his last meeting of the day — a 3:45pm meeting with the head of Presidential Personnel Johnny DeStefano — before ending his official day at4:15pm.
In case you lost track, Trump’s Tuesday is as follows:
8 am — 11 am: Executive Time
11 am — 11:30 am: Meeting with John Kelly
11:30 am — 12:30 pm: Executive Time
12:30 pm — 1:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 pm — 2:45 pm: Executive Time
2:45 pm — 3:30 pm: Meeting with H.R. McMaster
3:30 pm — 3:45 pm: Executive Time
3:45 pm — 4:15 pm: Meeting with Johnny DeStefano
4:15 pm: End of day, return to residence
Trump’s entire Tuesday is three meetings, lunch and five and a half hours of “Executive Time.”
In the midst of the White House proclaiming that Trump is keeping so many of his promises it’s worth remembering that Trump said the following on the eve of his inauguration: “I promise you that I will work so hard.”
The schedule, however, doesn’t lie.
354 days in, 1108 to go
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