Donald Trump Spent Just 2 Hours On Policy In A Week, Unstructured “Executive Time” Dominates His Schedule

All presidents have their own schedule that is dictated by what they want to achieve for the United States. President Donald Trump‘s schedule, however, is more erratic than his predecessors, and it’s characterized by more free time than previous presidents.

DONALD TRUMP’S “EXECUTIVE TIME”

According to Politico, Trump’ schedule for last Tuesday was unevenly split between time he allocated for work and time for himself, which is dubbed “Executive Time.” It’s time he often spends tweeting, chatting with friends and watching his television. Trump spent around three hours attending meetings and other presidential duties and nine on himself.

SLIDESHOW: DONALD TRUMP’S 30 CRAZIEST TWEETS

One week of his schedule dating from Oct. 22 to Oct. 26 shows that Tuesday was the weekday he allotted himself the most downtime, but it isn’t an abnormal routine. And all of this free time is influencing Trump and his presidency, allowing his moment-to-moment whims to paint his policies. Whereas previous presidents took care to maintain their discipline in their rigid schedules, Trump’s fluid routine can inspire spur-of-the-moment meetings while neglecting more pressing matters.

“He might read something in the paper and immediately you’d get an impromptu meeting on trade,” said an aide knowledgable in Trump’s scheduling. “It’s just more impromptu than like a month in advance you have a policy time set that you’re going to work up to.” Some aides maintain that Trump is productive during his “Executive Time” — one even calling Trump a “workaholic” — but it limits his ability in other fields, such as how he only spent just over two hours discussing policy last week.

“The president’s time is, in many ways, his most valuable commodity because it’s finite,” said Mack McLarty, President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff during first year in the White House. “It reflects his priorities. It reflects what he’s trying to get done with the country.”