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President Trump criticized former president Barack Obama for golfing too often. Now the White House is defending his own frequent outings. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)

In mid-August 2011, then-non-politician Donald Trump levied a critique of President Barack Obama.

This was one of dozens of tweets criticizing Obama for playing golf. (Heres another classic.) It was one of a handful that also dinged Obama for taking a vacation.

On the campaign trail, Trump was adamant: Hewould rarely play golf Im not going to have time to go play golf, he once said and he certainly wasnt going to take a lot of vacation. (Theres just so much to be done, he told 60 Minutes, so I dont think well be very big on vacations.)

On Friday, Trump will head to his golf course in Bedminster, N.J., for a 17-day vacation. Thats nearly twice as long as the vacation Obama took in August during his first year in office, when he went to Marthas Vineyard.

In 2010, Factcheck.orgs DAngelo Gore figured that the Vineyard trip was Obamas second that month, including a weekend trip to Arizona and Colorado during which Obama and his family visited the Grand Canyon. Obama did some work while he was there, but he made time for recreation, too, including fly-fishing. By Gores count, those were the second and third vacations of Obamas presidency, counting a four-day trip to the familys home in Chicago for Valentines Day.

If trips like that count brief getaways to a personal property to recharge then Trump has taken a lot of vacation. Before this month, Trumphadmade 11 such trips to his properties in Palm Beach and New Jersey. On occasion, hewould wrap in some work, as Obama did when he was out West. Often, though, he didnt. (He also spent one weekend in June at Camp David, Md.)

By our count, by the end of August, Trump will have spent all or part of 53 days in office at leisure, compared with 15 days for Obama through August 2009. Whats more, Trump will have played at least 33 rounds of golf, nearly double Obamas 17 rounds and thats even before Trump gets to his vacation spot, an actual golf course.

Theres certainly subjectivity to this. Perhaps you dont view Trumps trips to Mar-a-Lago as vacations. Perhaps you dont count partial days. Perhaps you have another metric youwould like to use. Fair enough.

For a presidential candidate who pledged to take little vacation and play next to no golf, though, the apples-to-apples comparison above is striking.

Especially given Trumps habit of laying down markers that he himself is likely to surpass.

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By end of August, Trump will have spent three times as many ...