The Golfer in Chief is just returning from his latest, record setting (in terms of expense) vacation stint on the links and of course this has some observers in the press wondering if his replacement will continue the tradition. We haven’t heard much about Hillary Clinton on the subject, but when it comes to Donald Trump, he may wind up cutting off the vacation train entirely. (Boston Globe)

“It would bore and perhaps scare him. He needs constant activity and gratification,” said Abe Wallach, the Trump Organization’s former executive vice president of acquisitions and finance for nearly a dozen years, who has known Trump since 1990.

Asked when was the last time Trump took a vacation, his campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, responded with a terse e-mail: “Mr. Trump prefers to work.”

Indeed. In previous media interviews and writings, Trump professes to shunning vacation.

“Don’t take vacations. What’s the point?” he tweeted in 2012, quoting his own book “Think Like a Billionaire.” “If you’re not enjoying your work, you’re in the wrong job.”

This isn’t coming from some sort of promise made on the campaign trail or, as far as I can tell, from any comment that Trump himself made on the subject. These are simply observations from those who know him and his discussions about vacations in his civilian life. So will that translate to four straight years locked in the office at the White House if he’s elected?

I’m not so sure about that. Reading through some of the material, the reason that Trump seemed to avoid vacations over the course of his career is that The Donald really seems to like his work. (And it’s not like he spends his days in a coal mine.) He’s also rather hyper-competitive by all accounts, not wanting to allow anyone else to get the edge on him. But those same conditions wouldn’t really apply to a job in the West Wing.

First of all, I can’t escape the feeling that, were he to be elected, Trump really wouldn’t enjoy being president very much. It’s very different from the business world and he would quickly grow frustrated with Congress not moving on his every impulse with the speed he’s used to in the Trump empire. He’ll also be bound by all sorts of legal restrictions as to what he can and can’t do. And there’s no profit motive to be had either, which seems to be a driving force in his life. Aside from some difficult to define advantage to be gained over other countries in trade deals or military positioning, there’s no real “winning” going on in the same way he describes it in The Art of the Deal.

Honestly, I have to wonder if President Trump wouldn’t become a bit bored with the whole thing after a while. And if that’s the case, why not duck out for a vacation? He’s a far more avid golfer than Obama and he’d have invitations to the finest courses in the world. We know he loves to travel, and that would be available as well. Perhaps he has the sort of discipline to just grind away at the job for 48 long months, but I’d have to see it to believe it.