Eric Trump claimed in an interview published Monday that his father’s frequent golfing trips and visits to his Mar-a-Lago estate are “a very effective tool” when it comes to “bonding” with foreign leaders.
“You can sit with somebody in a golf cart where there might be cultural differences and language barriers and have a good time and build a friendship in a way that you could never do sitting across an office table from someone,” Trump told Independent.ie.
He compared President Donald Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, to President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas.
“Bush brought foreign leaders from all over the world,” Eric Trump said. “They would have fun and they would eat and that was his way of bonding.”
Eric Trump described Mar-a-Lago as “an amazing estate that has been a very effective tool” for his father to “get to know somebody.”
Independent.ie noted that President Donald Trump has played golf 16 times since taking office, though Politifact placed his number of games at 14 as of Monday.
According to the New York Times’ tracker, the President has so far outpaced Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — whom Donald Trump frequently criticized for teeing off — in the total number of days he has spent at a golf course.
As the Times noted in March, White House staffers have begun refusing to confirm to reporters whether President Trump is even playing golf at all, let alone providing any details about his hypothetical partners.
