On Wednesday, The Washington Post published an article by David A. Fahrenthold and Josh Dawsey titled, “President Trump installed a room-sized golf simulator at White House.”
Given the title of the piece, one could be forgiven for thinking that the president spent government money to construct a large, entirely new golf simulator at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — and some prominent Twitter users seem to be running on that track.
Manu Raju, senior congressional correspondent for CNN, sent out the following tweet about the story:
In the past several weeks, Trump hasn’t played as much golf as he’s used to – but not to worry since he’s installed a “room-sized” golf simulator at WH. The cost: $50K. Meanwhile, executive time consists of 60% of his schedule https://t.co/ARZf3N5z5t
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 13, 2019
President Trump couldn't go to Mar-a-Lago during the government shutdown, so he had a $50,000 golf video game installed at the White House, likely at the EXACT same time 800,000 federal employees were without pay.
Unbelievable.https://t.co/0C5zOEPpqZ
— Rep. Mark Pocan (@repmarkpocan) February 13, 2019
Trump installed a $50,000 golf simulator in the White House. Sorry Mar-a-Lago, but you should've known the president would cheat on you too.
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) February 14, 2019
Here’s the problem — while the above tweets seem to imply that what the president did was somehow nefarious, and that the installation of a golf simulator was a callous gesture toward the American workers affected by the shutdown, neither is true.
First, according to an anonymous official who spoke with Fahrenthold and Dawsey, the golf simulator “replaced an older, less sophisticated simulator that had been installed under President Barack Obama.” Second, the president allegedly “paid for the new system and the installation personally.” – READ MORE