 "After banning remote work, is Donald Trump working from Mar-a-Lago home?")
United States President Donald Trump is not a fan of remote work. In a tirade against flexible work, he has earlier alleged that federal workers who work from home are actually playing golf and tennis.
For all his criticism of remote work, the Republican appears to be doing the same. Trump is at his Florida home for a six-day Presidents’ Day stay where he is not only playing golf but also working.
Let’s take a closer look.
Trump at Mar-a-Lago
Donald Trump is spending an extended Presidents’ Day weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
As per a CNN report, he spent the fourth straight day on Tuesday (February 18) at his home at Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump golfs almost every day when he is in Florida, with his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach being about a 10-minute drive from Mar-a-Lago.
Trump has reportedly been golfing nearly daily since he left the White House early Friday afternoon for the Presidents’ Day weekend in South Florida.
His sight at the golf club is so common that his supporters often gather outside the gate to welcome him, according to CNN.
However, it’s not all play for the US president. Trump, who despises WFH, is himself working from his Winter White House.
After spending much of Tuesday morning at the Trump International Golf Club, he signed three executive orders. Trump signed a presidential memorandum imposing “radical transparency requirements” on government departments and agencies, which he suggested could cut wasteful spending.
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Trump also received updates from his foreign policy team after their meeting with top Russian diplomats discussing a potential peace deal, reported CNN.
On Tuesday evening, Trump was the “honoured” guest at a gala in his own club. The other guests included boxing legend Mike Tyson, actor Russell Brand and performer Ted Nugent, reported The Palm Beach Post.
The Mar-a-Lago gala, hosted by America’s Future organisation, was the final event in Trump’s six-day Presidents’ Day stay in Florida. He will return to the White House Wednesday night after delivering a speech at an investment conference in Miami.
During his first term, the Republican was present at Mar-a-Lago for all four Presidents’ Day weekends. However, it was never for this long.
Since returning to office on January 20, Trump has already spent at least 12 nights at home in Florida, mostly on weekends.
Trump’s rant against WFH
Trump frequently visiting his Mar-a-Lago resort as US president is not surprising. But why it stands out during his second presidency is that it contrasts his unfavourable views on WFH and his criticism of his predecessor Joe Biden for spending weekends at home in Delaware.
Ridiculing the Democrat, he said last summer, “He [Biden] went to Delaware and he’s laying on a beach, sleeping all day long. Do you think President Xi [Jinping] of China is at a beach sleeping? Do you think Kim Jong Un is sleeping from North Korea with his nuclear weapons all over the place?”
After returning to the White House last month, Trump has claimed federal employees who do remote work are not working but passing their time leisurely.
As part of his efforts to reduce the federal workforce, he banned WFH, ordering all government departments to ask employees to return to work in person.
He deployed another way to push staff to resign –– by offering buyouts.
Trump said earlier in February, “I happen to be a believer that you have to go to work. I don’t think you can work from home.
“Nobody’s going to work from home, they’re going to be going out, they’re gonna play tennis, they’re gonna play golf . They’re gonna do a lot of things—they’re not working.”
He added, “It’s a rare person that’s going to work. You might work 10 per cent of the time, maybe 20 per cent, I don’t think you’re going to work a lot more than that.”
While Trump accused federal employees of playing golf instead of working, the Republican himself likely played around 261 rounds — about once every 5.6 days – during his first term, according to a Washington Post analysis in 2021.
With inputs from agencies
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