Trump’s Working Schedule So Busy He Has No Time For Lunch, Say White House Officials

Trump’s Working Schedule So Busy He Has No Time For Lunch, Say White House Officials
President Donald Trump participates in a signing ceremony for H.R.266, the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, with members of his administration and Republican lawmakers in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on April 24, 2020. (Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times/Pool/Getty Images)
Katabella Roberts
4/27/2020
Updated:
4/27/2020
President Donald Trump is working so hard on behalf of the United States amid the CCP virus pandemic, a type of novel coronavirus that emerged in China last year, that he often skips lunch, his aides told the New York Post.

White House staffers told the Post that Trump’s schedule is so jam-packed as he works toward helping safely reopen the economy, among other pressing issues, that he can make five dozen work-related calls a day, leaving him with very little time to eat.

“I can tell you that the biggest concern I have as a new chief of staff is making sure he gets some time to get a quick bite to eat,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told the Post. “He will go back in and have a lunch just off the Oval Office and more times than not it is interrupted by several phone calls.”

“If he gets more than 10 minutes of time in a given day I haven’t seen in the five weeks I’ve been here,” he added.

A different White House official said that on some days, the president doesn’t eat lunch at all, telling the Post that “there are times when lunch isn’t even a thought,” and that “a lot of time there’s either no time for lunch or there is 10 minutes for lunch.”

The comments about the president’s busy schedule come after The New York Times on Thursday published a lengthy article depicting the president as someone who is isolated in the White House amid the CCP virus pandemic, spending much of his time watching news channels looking for any kind of criticism of him or his handling of the crisis.

The article also described him as a “sour president,” who is worried about his reelection in November and said that he “rarely” attends the Coronavirus Task Force meetings that precede the briefing with the press. Finally, according to The New York Times’s article, the president ends his day with “his usual comfort food” of “french fries,” which he eats in the private dining room off the Oval Office.

Following the New York Times article, a seemingly frustrated Trump shared a string of messages on Twitter on Sunday, disputing the claims made in the report, and insisting that he works hard “from early in the morning until late at night.”

“The people that know me and know the history of our Country say that I am the hardest working President in history. I don’t know about that, but I am a hard worker and have probably gotten more done in the first 3 1/2 years than any President in history. The Fake News hates it!” he wrote in the first of the messages.
“I work from early in the morning until late at night, haven’t left the White House in many months (except to launch Hospital Ship Comfort) in order to take care of Trade Deals, Military Rebuilding etc., and then I read a phony story in the failing @nytimes about my work schedule and eating habits, written by a third rate reporter who knows nothing about me,” he continued.
“I will often be in the Oval Office late into the night and read and see that I am angrily eating a hamburger and Diet Coke in my bedroom. People with me are always stunned. Anything to demean!” Trump added.

Trump has been largely confined to the White House since the CCP virus outbreak put a halt on his previously extensive travel, but has been conducting daily press briefings with reporters in the West Wing and on the White House grounds.

However, Saturday’s briefing was canceled after Trump said they aren’t “worth the time and effort,” because of the negative and hostile questions he is repeatedly being asked by reporters.
On Twitter, at the time he would usually hold the briefings, Trump wrote: “What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!”

White House CCP virus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx said the media is “very slicey and dicey about how they put sentences together in order to create headlines,” and that they need to “be responsible about our headlines.”

“I think often, the reporting may be accurate in paragraph three, four, and five. But I’m not sure how many people actually get to paragraph three, four, and five. And I think the responsibility that the press has is to really ensure that the headlines reflect the science and data that is in their piece itself,” Birx told Fox News.