Democratic strategist Kevin Chavous on Monday criticized President Trump for reportedly spending more than half of his weekdays in unstructured “executive time,” saying the amount of time is “very troubling.”
“Sixty percent executive time, which we don’t really know what that is, other than watching Fox News or screenshots of his own tweets,” Chavous, a managing partner at The Chavous Group, told Hill.TV co-hosts Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti during a panel discussion on “Rising.”
Axios reported on Sunday that Trump’s private daily schedules showed he has spent around 60 percent of his scheduled time over the last three months in unstructured “executive time.” A White House source told Axios that Trump spends the first five hours of his day in his residence watching TV, reading newspapers and making various calls to officials.
“I guess he’s always been like this,” said Chavous. “In the ‘Art of the Deal,’ he talked about sort of being loose with his time, and he thinks being structured hinders ability to be in touch with his instincts or read a room.”
Chavous called the practice “very troubling” for a president, arguing that more time should be spent preparing for daily meetings and getting “basic background.”
Daily Caller journalist Amber Athey agreed, calling the lack of structure in Trump’s daily schedule “crazy.”
“You would think that there would at least be more structure his schedule. We don’t even know what he’s doing in these three-hour periods in the morning, in the middle of the day,” Athey, who is White House Correspondent for the conservative Daily Caller, told Hill.TV. “It’s really crazy.”
Athey also criticized what she called the overall lack of transparency at the White House.
“The comms team has a press briefing maybe once a month where we get to go ask questions of Sarah Sanders or other administration officials. And now the president is, what, tweeting in his office all day watching television?” she said.
Some officials have come to Trump’s defense following his leaked schedules.
White House aide Madeleine Westerhout said the schedules don’t take into account “hundreds” of the president’s daily calls and meetings.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) compared Trump’s habits to that of the late-Winston Churchill, who was U.K. prime minister.
“The ignorance of history of the current elites is pathetic,” Gingrich tweeted. “Churchill slept late, worked late, took a nap every afternoon (getting into his pajamas).”
—Tess Bonn
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