President Trump personally paid to upgrade a “golf simulator” originally installed in the White House by former President Barack Obama, according to an anonymously sourced Washington Post report.
I have so many questions.
First, was the White House bowling alley not good enough?
Second, and more seriously, why are we only now learning about the White House’s “golf simulator”? Good on the Post for reporting Trump spent nearly $50,000 of his own money to upgrade the Obama-era toy, but the man who originally installed the simulator has been out of office for going on three years. This means that the golf program has been around for even longer than that. Thank God for elected Republicans. If not for them, I guess we’d never hear about government excess or the laziness of our elected officials.
But that brings us to the third question, which is: Why, exactly, is this report being portrayed as a story of excess and waste when it’s actually about the president using his own money to upgrade a simulator that was installed before he took office?
Here’s how the Post reports on the program [emphases added]:
That system replaced an older, less sophisticated golf simulator that had been installed under President Obama, according to two people with knowledge of the previous system.
Trump’s system cost about $50,000, and was put in during the last few weeks in a room in his personal quarters, a White House official said.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the president’s private residence, said Trump had paid for the new system and the installation personally.
But here’s what the Post says in its headline: “President Trump installed a room-sized golf simulator at White House.”
And here’s how the paper is selling the story on social media: “President Trump installed a room-sized golf simulator at the White House, which allows him to play virtual rounds by hitting a ball into a large video screen. It was put in his personal quarters but sits unused … ”
The paper’s social media team has followed up with some fairly pertinent context, tweeting, “It replaces an older, less sophisticated golf simulator that had been installed under President Obama. Trump’s system cost about $50,000, which he paid for personally … .”
Naturally, members of the news media took their cues from the Post’s tweets, responding dutifully with additional commentary suggesting that Trump is wasteful, lazy, and wholly responsible for the stupid golf simulator.
“WHO AMONG US, MAN?” asked New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers.
Well, former President Obama, for one. Or was that not intended as a serious question?
CNN’s Manu Raju said, “In the past several weeks, “Trump hasn’t played as much golf as he’s used to – but not to worry since he’s installed a ‘room-sized’ golf simulator at WH. The cost: $50K. Meanwhile, executive time consists of 60% of his schedule.”
The Daily Beast’s Sam Stein even managed to work in a shot at right-leaning news organizations, tweeting, “The good news for Trump is that it’s not like conservative media spent years throwing a tantrum that Obama played golf.”
Interesting thought. Conservative news media most certainly would have lost its mind over the Obama golf simulator — had anyone bothered to report on it during any of the eight years he was in office.
Rolling Stone’s Washington bureau chief Andy Kroll complained, “If Obama had done this, Fox and the right-wing echo chamber would be going ballistic and cover it non-stop for days.”
Oops — it helps to read past the headline!
I’m glad this story was reported, but we shouldn’t have to elect a Republican president just to find out what’s going on in the White House.
