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Trump’s Daily Work Schedule Will Make You Seethe With Rage

by Sarah Beauchamp
Pool/Getty Images News/Getty Images

If you've ever wondered how President Trump finds so much time to tweet while serving as commander-in-chief, the answer might be due to his increasingly shorter schedule. According to Axios, which obtained his private schedules, Trump's White House schedule has reportedly shrunk since he started his presidency in January 2017. So, how much does Trump work? Turns out, apparently less than most average Americans.

From 8 a.m. until 11 a.m., Trump's schedule reportedly shows, the president has "executive time," which he uses to tweet, watch TV, and make phone calls. He generally doesn't begin his day in the Oval Office until at least 11 a.m., despite being up and tweeting as early as 6 a.m., Axios reported. Trump will often mention TV shows in his early morning tweets, usually referencing one of his favorite shows, Fox & Friends, or one of the "Fake News" networks, as he refers to them, like CNN.

Trump's day wraps up around 6 p.m., at which point he apparently returns to his residence to make more phone calls and watch more TV.

In addition to shorter days, Trump has also been called out for spending an inordinate amount of time away from the White House. The Washington Post reported that by the end of February 2017, Trump had already spent 12 days at Trump Organization properties, including his Mar-a-Lago resort and New Jersey golf course. By the end of March, he'd been gone for 19 days, 11 of which he was golfing.

"I'm going to be working for you," he initially said during the 2016 campaign. "I'm not going to have time to go play golf."

According to Axios, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has already responded to its article, writing:

The time in the morning is a mix of residence time and Oval Office time, but he always has calls with staff, Hill members, Cabinet members and foreign leaders during this time. The President is one of the hardest workers I've ever seen and puts in long hours and long days nearly every day of the week all year long. It has been noted by reporters many times that they wish he would slow down because they sometimes have trouble keeping up with him.

However, the president's private schedules show a different picture than the ones the White House releases to the public. On Tuesday, according to Axios, he began his day with a meeting with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly at 11 a.m., followed by an hour of "executive time." Then, a 45-minute meeting with national security adviser H.R. McMaster was followed with 15 more minutes of "executive time" and just one more meeting before calling it a day at 4:15 p.m.

If you compare this schedule to past presidents, it looks like Trump is working less than his predecessors. For instance, George W. Bush typically arrived at the Oval Office by 6:45 a.m. Barack Obama would generally get to the Oval around 9 a.m., after working out in the early morning.

Aides told Axios that while Trump is always doing something, his "executive time" at the residence is "unstructured and undisciplined." So he might be busy, but he's not getting much done. It's during these blocks of time that Trump will share praise about himself on Twitter, provoke North Korea into possible nuclear war, and plan fake award shows in order to attack the press.

What's more, taxpayers are paying for Trump's downtime. Not just the hours he spends in his residence every day, but also every trip he takes to another Trump property. Each time he goes to Mar-a-Lago, conservative group Judicial Watch estimates, it costs the government roughly $1 million, not including local law enforcement costs. So, not only is Trump working less hours than the average American, but we're paying for it in more ways than one.