Biden goes home a lot — but not as much as Trump went to Trump properties

The stakes now are different. The president of the United States lives in the White House because the White House affords him access to safety and information and an ability to quickly respond to crises that’s unmatched elsewhere. What’s more, Biden’s predecessor was regularly criticized for how often he was away from the White House, a criticism that doesn’t seem to bother Biden much.

But of course, there are significant differences between Biden’s time away from the White House and Donald Trump’s. When Trump left the White House, he wasn’t going to his house but, almost always, to one of the properties his private company owned. His travel was a de facto advertisement for his private business, and the regularity with which he traveled to those quasi-public spaces afforded those seeking access to know where he might be found. Often, those trips included hours spent on the golf course, often partnering with other players who weren’t identified by the White House.

What’s more, Trump’s regular trips to properties owned by his private business yielded income for the Trump Organization, money that came from taxpayers. It’s unclear how much money was spent by the Secret Service and other government organizations at Trump properties while Trump was president, but it’s demonstrably in the millions.

It was also generally more expensive for the government to shuttle Trump to his properties than it is to get Biden to Delaware, since the properties Trump visited the most — his private clubs at Mar-a-Lago and in Bedminster, N.J. — are substantially further away. Trump did go to his hotel in Washington, D.C., a few blocks from the White House, and regularly to his golf club in Sterling, Va., about 20 miles away. But with the exception of a Thanksgiving trip to Nantucket, Biden has only gone to Wilmington and his house at Rehoboth Beach, both quite a bit closer.

Over Trump’s presidency, I tracked his visits to his private properties. And while it does seem like Biden goes to Delaware a lot — because he does — a casual observer might be forgiven for forgetting how often Trump left Washington for rest and relaxation. Comparing the first 13-plus months of each man’s presidency, it’s clear that Biden is not obviously exceeding Trump’s total departures from the White House.

(For this analysis, I include any part of a day spent at Biden’s or Trump’s destinations. So days on which the president traveled to or returned from a property, even if they were at the White House for most of the day, are included as days that included a visit to the other property.)

We can put numbers to that graphic. Biden visited one of his properties in Delaware or went to Nantucket on all or part of 114 days over his first 13 months in office. Trump visited at least one Trump Organization property on 133 days in the same period.

Trump’s trips also involved a lot more travel. Considering only the trips to and from each location, Biden’s trips meant about 7,400 miles in travel. Trump’s constituted more than 27,500 miles, nearly four times as many. (This includes his trips to New York City, which departed from his club in New Jersey and not from D.C.)

This analysis certainly risks using a bit of whataboutism to excuse Biden’s time away from the White House, which is certainly unusual for recent non-Trump presidents. But it is the case that the implications and costs of Biden’s travel has been quite different than that occurring during Trump’s presidency.

For example, it seems quite unlikely that Biden is profiting financially from his trips home. Trump did.