Hehehe....President-elect Donald Trump played golf at his course about 13 miles north of his Palm Beach resort Saturday.
What time he left Mar-a-Lago, what time he arrived at Trump National
in Jupiter, who he met or played with once there, what time he was
finished and whether there were any incidents along the way were not
immediately clear, as he ditched the reporters assigned to cover him for
the day.
“It was a last-minute decision to play golf, nothing more,” Trump travel aide Stephanie Grisham said.
Presidents, presidents-elect
and major party presidential nominees in recent decades have been
accompanied everywhere by a group of print, online, wire service and
broadcast reporters, a rotating “pool” that shares that information for
use by all their colleagues. That tradition, though, was broken during
the campaign by Trump, who largely refused to allow members of the press
to travel on his personal jetliner, forcing the use of a second plane.
The resulting logistical
complications sometimes meant pool reporters ― who often paid thousands
of dollars per day for air travel ― were unable to arrive at his
campaign events until after he had taken the stage. Trump also refused
to take reporters to fundraiser locations. Candidate in both parties had
made a practice of this, including releasing information about the
hosts, the number of attendees and the amount collected.
Not long after the election,
Trump went to a New York City restaurant ― with a full Secret Service
motorcade ― without notifying his press pool. Reporters on call that
evening learned of his visit because of a restaurant patron’s tweet that
he was there, and then the reporters scrambled to get there too.
Trump was scheduled to attend a New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night, which, according to a Politico report,
has sold 800 tickets at more than $500 each. Unlike political
fundraisers for political parties, the profits from the New Year’s Eve
party were expected to flow directly to Trump, who owns the hotel.
Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks
told Politico that he was not concerned that ticket buyers might be
trying to purchase access to the soon-to-be-president. “This is an
annual celebratory event at the private club, like others that have
continued to occur since the election. Additionally, the president
cannot and does not have a conflict,” Hicks told Politico.
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