Coronavirus: Donald Trump defends decision to play golf as US nears 100,000 deaths
- ‘I knew this would happen,’ US president says, slamming media for making ‘a little exercise’ sound like ‘a mortal sin’
- Trump marks Memorial Day by paying tribute to fallen members of American military
US President Donald Trump defended his decision to spend most of the Memorial Day holiday weekend playing golf as the US death toll from the coronavirus outbreak neared 100,000.
“Some stories about the fact that in order to get outside and perhaps, even a little exercise, I played golf over the weekend. The Fake & Totally Corrupt News makes it sound like a mortal sin – I knew this would happen!,” Trump tweeted on Monday, saying this was the first time he had played in nearly three months.
Before becoming president, Trump had repeatedly criticised his predecessor, Democratic President Barack Obama, for playing golf, including during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
“There are times to play and times that you can’t play. It sends the wrong signal,” Trump said at the time.
“You know when you’re president you sorta say, like, ‘I’m gonna give it up for a couple of years and I’m really gonna focus on the job’,” he said.