Moving at the “speed of Trump” is one of the White House’s favorite phrases, meant to convey the administration’s attempts to bring big changes to government at breakneck speed. But when it comes to presidential travel, Donald Trump’s pace in the opening months of his second term is comparable to Joe Biden’s.
At his six-month mark in office through Saturday, Trump had made 49 trips to 14 states and seven foreign countries, with a heavy focus on weekend golf trips and sporting events.
That’s not far off from Biden, who made 45 trips to 17 states and three foreign countries in his first six months in 2021, which overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Democrat made lots of weekend trips home to Delaware, where he went to church and usually did not golf. He also had more political and official trips than did his Republican successor.
Trump’s second-term travel is also less prolific than his first so far, at least in terms of visiting different parts of the United States. In 2017, he made 48 trips to 21 states and eight foreign countries between Jan. 20 and July 20.
The White House has said Trump is most effective while in the Oval Office, working the phones, signing executive orders and meeting with foreign leaders and U.S. elected officials.
It says Trump has met with 25 foreign leaders at the White House, including multiple visits by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and signed 165 executive orders while holding six Cabinet meetings — totals that far outpace Biden’s.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement that Trump’s “travel reflects his America First agenda -– he is meeting the American people where they are and representing their best interests.”
The president, Rogers said, “will continue working around the clock to deliver the best deals for the American people from the Oval Office, throughout the country, and around the world.”
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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
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