Presidential Travel Patterns: A Comparative Look
The White House often uses the phrase “moving at the speed of Trump” to describe the administration’s rapid pace of change. However, when it comes to presidential travel, the pace of Donald Trump in the early months of his second term is not as fast as one might expect. In fact, it closely mirrors that of Joe Biden during his first six months in office.
At the six-month mark, Trump had made 49 trips to 14 states and seven foreign countries, with a notable emphasis on weekend golf trips and sporting events. This number is quite similar to Biden’s 45 trips to 17 states and three foreign countries in his first six months of 2021. While Biden spent weekends in Delaware, attending church and avoiding golf, Trump’s schedule was more focused on leisure activities and sports events.
Trump’s travel record in his second term has also been less extensive than in his first term. In 2017, he made 48 trips to 21 states and eight foreign countries between January 20 and July 20. The White House claims that Trump is most effective while in the Oval Office, working the phones, signing executive orders, and meeting with foreign leaders and U.S. officials.
According to the White House, 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. He has also signed 165 executive orders and held six Cabinet meetings—numbers that far exceed those of Biden.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers stated that Trump’s travel reflects his America First agenda, emphasizing that he meets the American people where they are and represents their best interests. She added that Trump 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.
Weekend Trips and Sporting Events
When Trump is on the road, it is often to his properties for weekend trips centered around golf. These include Palm Beach, Florida; Bedminster, New Jersey; and Sterling, Virginia, near Washington’s Dulles International Airport. The president has logged 14 trips to Florida, 13 to Virginia, and eight to New Jersey. After summer arrived, he favored Bedminster or day trips to Sterling over Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
Biden, on the other hand, frequently visited his home in Wilmington, Delaware, for weekends. He sometimes went to a golf club but attended Mass nearly every weekend. He also traveled to showcase policy achievements, such as visiting Smith Flooring in Chester, Pennsylvania, a small business benefiting from the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package.
Trump’s non-golf domestic travel has largely revolved around sporting events. He attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans, the Daytona 500 in Florida, UFC fights in Miami and Newark, New Jersey, the NCAA wrestling championships in Philadelphia, and the FIFA Club World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Political Rallies and Commencement Addresses
Trump has held only three major political rallies since returning to the White House. These included marking his first 100 days in office in suburban Detroit, going to Pittsburgh to trumpet an agreement between U.S. Steel and Japan’s Nippon Steel, and kicking off the start of America’s 250th birthday celebration in Des Moines, Iowa. He gave an economy-focused speech at a Las Vegas casino during his second term’s opening weekend and addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Biden participated in a CNN town hall in Wisconsin, marked the 11th anniversary of the Obama administration’s signature health care law in Columbus, Ohio, and spotlighted his first 100 days in office by addressing a socially distanced, drive-in rally in Atlanta.
Trump gave more commencement addresses, speaking at the University of Alabama and the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. Biden spoke at the Coast Guard commencement in Connecticut during his opening months in office, when the pandemic limited many such ceremonies.
Overseas Travel and Natural Disaster Visits
One area where Trump has outpaced Biden is on overseas travel. He visited Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral and had a swing through Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar before going to Canada for the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations meeting and a NATO summit in the Netherlands. Biden did not travel overseas in 2021 until the G7 in June, when he went to the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Switzerland.
Trump’s second term started with visits to western North Carolina and Southern California, both hit by natural disasters that occurred under Biden’s presidency. He also visited Texas after recent devastating floods. However, he did not tour parts of Missouri and Kentucky ravaged by tornadoes or areas hit by strong storms that sparked deadly flooding from Texas and Oklahoma to Indiana and Pennsylvania. He also did not visit the widespread aftermath of spring tornadoes in Mississippi and Arkansas.
Biden toured storm damage in Houston in February 2021. He did not travel to all natural disaster sites during his first six months, either, but went to Florida after a building collapse in Surfside killed 98 people.
Promises and Unfulfilled Travel Plans
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first foreign leader to visit the White House during Trump’s second term in early February, the president proclaimed, “I love Israel. I will visit there. And I’ll visit Gaza.” His Middle East swing in May omitted both places.
Trump also suggested that his government-slashing guru Elon Musk would check out Fort Knox in Kentucky to ensure that U.S. gold reserves were still there, and the president said he might join him. With Musk having left the Trump administration and engaging in a nasty public feud with Trump, that now seems highly unlikely.
The president said recently he would like to visit Africa “at some point.” He was less committal about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to visit a September summit of countries known as the Quad, made up of the U.S., India, Japan, and Australia.
Trump is heading to Scotland next week and will visit two areas where he has golf properties. He will be in England for an official visit in the fall. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, while at the White House in February, presented Trump with a letter from King Charles inviting the president to his country for an unprecedented second state visit. “This has never happened before,” Starmer said. Trump accepted the invitation right then.
