U.S. President Donald Trump briefly attended the Group of 20 global summit online Saturday morning and then returned to spending his morning as he does on any other weekend -- playing golf and ranting on Twitter.
Trump but did not attend the side event "Pandemic Preparedness and Response" and instead headed to the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, while the session to tackle the world's health crisis was underway, reports say.
Around 198,500 new COVID infections were reported in a 24-hour period as Trump skips an important event focused on a coordinated response to contain the virus. Over 11.7 million Americans have been infected with coronavirus since the pandemic broke out.
The G20 Summit, which was set to be hosted in Saudi Arabia, is attended by world leaders from across the world and is being held virtually this year because of the pandemic.
A mix of supporters and hecklers greeted Trump as he entered the golf club -- one carrying a "Four More Years" banner and another holding a sign with a caricature of a piece of toast bread that read: "Face it. You're Toast," a White House pool report revealed.
The incumbent president, who has still not conceded defeat after President-elect Joe Biden's win in the presidential elections on Nov. 3, made a quick speech following the opening of the two-day virtual summit.
According to a source with access to the virtual meeting, Trump had said that he had done "an absolutely incredible job during his term, economically and with the pandemic." The online summit was closed to the media.
Trump also touted the U.S. military and told world leaders that he looked forward to working with them "for a long time," and even tweeted many times while the session was ongoing, claiming voter fraud in the election, The Guardian disclosed.
According to sources, no other world leader talked about their own local politics, and most of the comments during the virtual session were focused on the pandemic and how to contain it.
Trump has visited the golf club 303 times during his four years as president, a tally by CNN shows. The number of golf outings he has made in his presidency was far more made by his predecessor, Barack Obama, who only played just 113 rounds of golf in his first term, sports magazine The Loop said.
Trump's golf trips are estimated to cost around $142 million -- in taxpayers' money -- over the last four years, presidential golf-tracker Trump Golf Count revealed.
