Trump defends golf outings as US coronavirus death toll nears 100,000

President Trump vented over being criticized for playing golf over Memorial Day weekend as the coronavirus death toll nears 100,000 in the United States.

After his Democratic rival Joe Biden’s campaign released an ad juxtaposing Trump at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, and the death toll numbers, the president turned his ire to the previous administration.

“Biden was constantly vacationing, relaxing & making shady deals with other countries, & that Barack was always playing golf, doing much of his traveling in a fume spewing 747 to play golf in Hawaii,” Trump tweeted late Sunday.

Trump also attacked former President Barack Obama for golfing in 2014 after journalist James Foley was beheaded by the Islamic State. Obama later admitted that it was bad optics to golf immediately after he condemned the brutal killing.

Trump, noting he had not been golfing in months because of the pandemic, lashed out at the media on Monday for its coverage of his outings on Saturday and Sunday.

“The Fake & Totally Corrupt News makes it sound like a mortal sin - I knew this would happen!” he tweeted. “They are truly deranged!”

Trump again mentioned Obama’s golf outings, which he frequently criticized when Obama was in the White House.

“Totally inappropriate,” he wrote.