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Donald Trump Honors Florida Shooting Victims By Not Playing Golf, Attends Studio-54-Themed Party Instead

By Treva Bowdoin
Published on: 13:31 PST, Feb 17, 2018

President Donald Trump avoided the bad optics of playing golf at his Florida golf resort after one of the worst mass shootings in the state’s history. However, he couldn’t completely escape criticism for how he chose to spend the start of his long weekend. The president and his wife are now facing scrutiny for their decision to drop by a disco-themed party at Mar-a-Lago.

On Saturday, White House aides said that Donald Trump was not going to kick off President’s Day weekend by playing golf at his property in Palm Beach. Bloomberg‘s Jennifer Jacobs reported that the president decided to forgo a trip to his golf course out of respect for the victims of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The school where 17 students lost their lives is located just 40 miles away from Mar-a-Lago.

According to Politifact, Donald Trump has played at least 44 rounds of golf during his first year as president. It’s obvious that it’s one of his favorite pastimes, but some Twitter users don’t see his decision to stay away from the fairway for a day as much of a sacrifice.

“There’s always tomorrow and Monday. Trust me Trump will golf this weekend. One day off? So generous,” wrote one commenter.

“So we’ve gotten to the point where the President NOT playing golf is news,” another remarked.

There were also questions about whether the president was going to do anything else to honor the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, like attending memorial services or speaking with members of the community.

So far, Donald Trump has only had brief meetings with first responders and survivors of the shooting. During his Friday visit to the Broward County Sheriff’s office, the seriousness of the tragedy didn’t stop the president from cracking a joke about the police officer who arrested alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz. As reported by The Hill, Trump told the officer that he was being too modest about the role that he played in apprehending Cruz. Trump said that he would have bragged about his actions if he had captured the shooter.

“That was so modest, I would have told it much differently,” Trump quipped. “I would have said without me, they never would have found him.”

Donald Trump still seemed to be in a jovial mood later Friday night when he and First Lady Melania Trump were spotted at Mar-a-Lago. According to Mediaite, the couple dropped by a Studio-54-themed party shortly after their meeting with the shooting survivors and first responders.

One attendee snapped a photo of the president and first lady sitting on a couch. She shared the picture on Instagram, where she wrote that the first couple was only at the bash for a short period of time. She also revealed that they didn’t join the revelers who were disco dancing in Mar-a-Lago’s ballroom. The photo was later removed from Instagram, but the Huffington Post captured a screenshot of the image.

Even though the woman who shared the Instagram post insisted that Donald and Melania Trump weren’t at the disco party to party, some commenters slammed the president for stopping by to greet his gleeful guests.

“Dude just met with families of victims and is out partying the same night. He’s a moron and a sociopath,” read one response.

“Complete sociopath! Insane!” another wrote.

Donald Trump is expected to spend the rest of the holiday weekend at Mar-a-Lago.

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