"This is not a vacation": Trump kicks off 17-day trip with tweets, golf

President Trump tweeted his 17-day trip to his Bedminister club "is not a vacation" while photos and videos surfaced on social media showing he spent some time Saturday on the golf course. 

Mr. Trump tweeted he is "working" while "long planned construction is being done at the White House. This is not a vacation - meetings and calls!" 

According to a White House official, Mr. Trump was briefed Saturday morning from chief of staff Gen. John Kelly about the Marine Osprey helicopter crash. Mr. Trump will be having meetings and briefings with White House advisers and lawmakers while at Bedminster over next two weeks, according to the official. 

The vacation tweet was not the only tweet Mr. Trump sent Saturday night -- he also tweeted an article from The Washington Post about the fight against ISIS, a clip of Jesse Watters talking about the arrest of an aide to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the United Nations Security Council vote on North Korea and a complimentary video a Twitter user made of him. 

Mr. Trump left Friday, and the White House did not comment Saturday on Mr. Trump's activities, but social media users posted photos and video of him on the golf course. 

Before becoming president, Mr. Trump had long been critical of former President Obama and his vacation and golfing. A clip surfaced this week of then-candidate Trump saying in 2015 that he would "rarely leave" the White House. "I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off," Mr. Trump said.

In August 2016, he said would "not have time to play golf" while president.