Most presidents vacation in August, and most presidents play golf. President Trump is doing both during his 11-day "working vacation" at his company's golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. And other than a roundtable on prison reform scheduled for Thursday, Trump "will, unless things change, be on 'Executive Time,'" says Jonathan Swan at Axios, referring to the unscheduled time Trump typically spends watching cable news and tweeting. Unlike last year, when "his senior staff often scrambled to fill his time — planning events and scheduling golf games with people who might engage him in productive conversation," Swan said, "now his staff have largely given up on futile efforts to supervise him, leaving the president's schedule open and unstructured."
Trump is doing more than tweeting and watching TV, Swan reports. He likes to golf in the morning, dine in the clubhouse with guests, mix with club members, and frequently talk on the phone — "and staff often have no idea who he's talking to." If Trump's taking some much-needed R & R, though, his staff and Secret Service detail are working around the clock. Trump's liberal and erratic use of Twitter "means his press and legal teams can never truly switch off," Axios says, and his proximity to guests poses a challenge to his protective agents. "Bedminster is really something," a source who's spent time there with Trump tells Swan. "People in a swimming pool all day, 15 yards from POTUS's house." Read more about Trump's "summer playground" at Axios.
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