Trump says he ‘works probably more hours than any past president’ after schedule leaks

Clark Mindock ,The Independent Donald Trump has claimed he probably works “more hours than almost any past president” after leaks from the White House revealed he spends more than half of his working days in unstructured “executive time”. The leaks to Axios showed in roughly three months following the 2018 midterm elections, the president spent about 60 per cent of his time without official appointments or activities marked on his schedule. “The media was able to get my work schedule, something very easy to do, but it should have been reported as a positive, not negative. When the term Executive Time is used, I am generally working, not relaxing. In fact, I probably work more hours than almost any past President,” Mr Trump tweeted. In a subsequent tweet, Mr Trump added: “The fact is, when I took over as President, our Country was a mess. Depleted Military, Endless Wars, a potential War with North Korea, V.A., High Taxes & too many Regulations, Border, Immigration & HealthCare problems, & much more. I had no choice but to work very long hours!” While Mr Trump claimed that it is “very easy” to get ahold of his presidential schedule, the leaks have sparked a search in the White House to determine who handed the documents over. The Axios report on the leaked schedule showed on some days the president’s entire schedule was devoted to “executive time”. It is unclear what Mr Trump does during “executive time”, but he has been criticized since becoming president for his frequent trips to golf course. While Mr Trump often criticized Barack Obama for playing golf, he has so far visited the golf course at least 158 times during his presidency, according to Trump Golf Count.