Time is dragging it’s feet. Purposely resisting the instinctive ease it normally chooses to run by not because it feels idle, but because the world must understand the destructive, careless mistake letting an unqualified child become the President of the United States was. We are only 82 days and counting into Trump’s presidency. But according to The New York Times, in between all of the hard work that would obviously keep him away from vacationing as he claimed in 2015, Trump has managed to fit in visits to his private estate in Palm Beach, Florida six out of the twelve weekends of his presidency. Given the straightforward commentary Trump readily had on standby each time former President Barack Obama took a vacation, it seems as if the trips between the two Presidents are not the same.
“@gretawire: PresObama is not busy talking to Congress about Syria..he is playing golf …go figure”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 8, 2013
“@nikkio: DonaldTrump: Only way to get Obama to do right for our Marine would be for every country club across USA to deny him golf access
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2014
If Obama resigns from office NOW, thereby doing a great service to the country—I will give him free lifetime golf at any one of my courses!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2014
I play golf to relax. My company is in great shape. @BarackObama plays golf to escape work while America goes down the drain.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2011
“Don’t take vacations. What’s the point? If you’re not enjoying your work, you’re in the wrong job.” — Think Like A Billionaire
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2012
Who else could take 16 vacations, play over 100 rounds of golf and hold over 300 fundraisers while serving as (cont) http://t.co/HMtyFeFB
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2012
With 15% US real unemployment and a 16T debt, @Michelle Obama’s luxurious Aspen vacation – her 16th – cost us over $1M http://t.co/CVPNrEmD
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2012
Or so Sean Spicer seems to stress. Trump used a golf trip with Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe as an opportunity “to help foster a deeper relationship in southeast Asia…and have a growing relationship that’s going to help U.S. interests,” Spicer noted when asked how Trump’s golf game is any different than President Obama’s. He added that “how you use the game of golf is something that [Trump has] talked about”(Spicer).
Ah, yes. Trump’s estimated $20 million on travel costs to Florida that CNN reports puts him on track to spend more on travel in eleven weeks than former President Obama spent in eight years differs from Obama’s vacation expenses. Trump does in fact use the game of golf in a different fashion. While Spicer does appear to understand that there is an obvious difference between the two taking vacations, he fails to perceive the obvious truth past his privilege.
Simply put, Barack Obama was vacationing while black. The stereotypical association between laziness and black skin causes others like Spicer to differentiate the shared actions between Trump and Obama. Spicer wants us to believe that vacationing as Trump earns the status of diplomatically useful vacations and therefore diminishes the millions of taxpayer dollars Trump has spent. The same cannot be said for Obama, whose skin color magnifies the very faults that blur out on a white man.
We see the same phenomenon perpetuated by media bias. News headlines are quick to label people of color as terrorists in the aftermath of any US domestic terrorist attack, but hesitant to give white terrorists the same title. While endless explanations are given as a means to redeem a white terrorist, even more seem to be given as a means to detract sympathy away from a black victim of police brutality. A recent reach made by New York Daily News pointed out that the grandfather of white supremacist terrorist James Jackson fought for the civil rights of black people in the sixties.
Each only further confirms the longtime agenda that continues to consciously or unconsciously invade our mindset–a black person or any person of color cannot sport the same actions as a white man.
