The White House says Trump's New Jersey trip is vacation. He says it's not.

Storage containers are delivered outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC, August 4, 2017, as workers prepare to complete maintenance and updates to the West Wing — (Image credit: Saul Loeb/Getty Images)

The White House is scheduled to undergo renovation while President Trump stays at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, for a 17-day visit he denies is a vacation.

"Working in Bedminster, N.J., as long planned construction is being done at the White House," Trump tweeted Saturday evening. "This is not a vacation - meetings and calls!" Two days prior, the White House deputy press secretary described the trip as a "working vacation," and Trump was photographed golfing shortly after his tweet:

However, it's true the White House is getting serious work done in Trump's absence. Planned repairs to the presidential residence include major HVAC work and amelioration of a "foul odor" and fly problem in the West Wing. The air conditioning system dates to the Reagan years, and some of the ceilings drip when it rains.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.