Donald Trump Is Now on a 17-Day Vacation. When Was Your Last Vacation?

Good riddance.
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To reward himself for a job poorly done, Donald Trump is leaving on a jetplane for an extended stay at the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey. I wish we didn’t know when he’ll be back again.

When was the last time you got 17 consecutive days off?

Unless you’re a teacher, the answer is that in America, 17 days off consecutively is an extremely, extremely rare thing (and most teachers and professors I know have summer positions to supplement their income). At any other job in this country, you would be hard-pressed to accrue 17 days of vacation after a mere 6 months on the job. I know it feels like Donald Trump has been President for 8,000 years, but it’s only been 196 days.

Many American workers get almost no paid vacation and struggle to even take a sick day. Many Americans voted for Trump because they are desperate for a job, period, let alone a vacation—and Trump promised jobs. Instead of working on job-creation initiatives, Donald Trump is on track to spend more money on weekend getaways in half a year than President Obama’s 8-year travel budget. Now he’s going to relax in the lap of luxury for 408 hours because this Presidenting thing is so hard, it’s tremendously difficult to watch cable news all day and obstruct justice, believe me.

GQ has some fun with Trump’s rank hypocrisy, as he spent years attacking Obama’s breaks and swearing that he would never vacation if he were President. Well, he’s President, and he’s going to check out for two and a half weeks. I’m sure the struggling communities across America are thrilled for him. #MAGA.

“Don’t take vacations. What’s the point? If you’re not enjoying your work, you’re in the wrong job,” said Donald Trump knowingly in 2004. “Barack Obama played golf yesterday. Now he heads to a 10 day vacation on Martha’s Vineyard. Nice work ethic,” observed Donald Trump sarcastically in 2010. “President Obama is about to embark on a 17-day vacation in his ‘native’ Hawaii,” exclaimed Donald Trump incredulously in 2013. “I would not be a president who took vacations,” promised Donald Trump confidently in 2015. “I’m going to vacation for the next 17 days at a New Jersey golf resort with my name on it,” whispered Donald Trump, probably, in 2017.

The only silver lining I can find in Trump’s absence is that I’m cautiously optimistic the vacation will end up being good for America. I don’t know about you, but I can barely remember what it was like to not wake up every morning with the world on fire from some new Trump comment, lie, scandal, or investigation into possible Russian collusion. I could use a Trumpcation myself.

A whole 17 days without having to picture Trump in the Oval Office sounds frankly incredible. Maybe he’ll decide to just stay at the Golf Club forever (since he thinks the White House is such a dump) and then we will know what it is to sleep soundly again.

(via GQ, image: Newsweek)

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Kaila Hale-Stern
Kaila Hale-Stern (she/her) is a content director, editor, and writer who has been working in digital media for more than fifteen years. She started at TMS in 2016. She loves to write about TV—especially science fiction, fantasy, and mystery shows—and movies, with an emphasis on Marvel. Talk to her about fandom, queer representation, and Captain Kirk. Kaila has written for io9, Gizmodo, New York Magazine, The Awl, Wired, Cosmopolitan, and once published a Harlequin novel you'll never find.