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President Donald Trump is set to go on a 17-day golf vacation, despite having criticized his predecessor for taking time off and playing golf.

According to reports from the Associated Press, the Republican will be taking a break from Washington, D.C., on Friday. Hell be heading to his New Jersey golf course for a 17-day trip in what appears to be a contradiction of his previous statements about vacations.

During his presidential election campaign, Trump told voters: I would rarely leave the White House because theres so much work to be done. I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off.

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On another occasion, the president tweeted a quote from his book that suggested people who loved their jobs should not be taking vacations.

His suggestion followed a number of tweets critical of President Barack Obama for taking holidays or playing golf, while lamenting the amount of taxpayer dollars it cost for Obama to take a vacation.

When will Obama next go on vacation if he wins the election? The day after, Trump tweeted back in 2012.

President Obama has a major meeting on the N.Y.C. Ebola outbreak, with people flying in from all over the country, but decided to play golf! he said on Twitter in 2014.

Trump also hit the Obamas for wasting taxpayer money with their vacations, tweeting in 2012: The Obamas Spain vacation cost taxpayers over $476K. They love to spend money.

However, Trumps own vacations, coupled with weekend trips to his Mar-a-Lago resort, which he has dubbed the Winter White House, have seen him spend far more than Obama did on holidays.

Indeed, according to a report from CNN, Trump was estimated to have spent more than $20 million during his first 80 days as president on trips to his Florida resort. This puts Trump on track to have spent more on travel during his first years as president than Obama did during his eight years in the role.

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Trump Slammed Obama for Taking Vacation, but He Just Booked 17-Day Golf Retreat - Newsweek

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday unanimously confirmed two nominees to serve on the Federal Communications Commission as the Trump administration looks to reverse many Obama-era telecommunications regulations.

Brendan Carr, a Republican who is general counsel at the FCC and Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, were both confirmed by voice vote, bringing the five-member FCC to full strength and giving Republicans a 3-2 majority.

Rosenworcel served as a commissioner for the regulator until the end of 2016 when lawmakers failed to take up her renomination under former President Barack Obama.

The FCC, which since January has been controlled by Republicans by a 2-1 margin, is working to reverse a number of Obama-era telecommunications regulations, including the landmark 2015 net-neutrality rules prohibiting broadband providers from giving or selling access to certain internet services over others.

The Senate did not immediately vote to reconfirm FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to another term, even though he appeared at a confirmation hearing in July with the other nominees. Pai would need to leave the commission by the end of the year if he were not reconfirmed.

In a statement, Pai praised Rosenworcel and Carr's confirmations and said they have "distinguished records of public service and will be valuable assets to the FCC in the years to come.Their experience at the FCC makes them particularly well-suited to hit the ground running."

Pai, chosen by Trump in January to head the agency, also has said he wants to dismantle other significant regulations as part of a sweeping review he said would remove barriers to business and modernize rules.

Pai also plans significant changes to local TV ownership limits and plans other changes to media regulations.

Democrats insisted Republicans had agreed in 2015 to reconfirm Rosenworcel as part of a deal to confirm FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly. Republicans denied there was a deal but the standoff had delayed consideration of telecommunications legislation in the Senate.

Under Pai, the FCC chose not to review AT&T Inc's planned $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc.

The FCC is currently reviewing Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc's proposed $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co, one of the largest U.S. TV station operators.

Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

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Senate approves two FCC nominees as it reviews Obama rules - Reuters

The Obama administration misled Americans into thinking signing up for Obamacare would be cheaper than it really was, according to an inspector generals report Thursday that said the IRS dramatically understated the actual cost of enrolling.

IRS officials sent the letters to try to prod Americans to comply with the 2010 health laws individual mandate that penalizes them for not holding coverage.

But as part of the letters, the IRS said most people could find plans for $75 a month or less, once government subsidies were figured in.

That was untrue in fact, the average cost was more than twice that figure, at $168 a month, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said.

Many of the nearly 7.5 million taxpayers who receive letters and seek insurance may feel misled if the actual cost of their insurance is much higher than the $75 per month detailed in their notification letter, the inspector general concluded.

The IRS said it was only using numbers provided by Health and Human Services, and verified by the Treasury Department. They said the $75 figure was true for some taxpayers.

The inspector general said it asked for that documentation but never received it.

Auditors said their own analysis found the HHS studies were based on a smaller sample and was limited to those who chose lower-coverage plans with fewer benefits.

According to the new audit, federal regulations require agencies to present accurate information.

Investigators uncovered the misleading information as part of a broader audit about how the IRS was handling its role in alerting Americans who arent complying with Obamacares mandate to hold insurance.

Some 19.3 million Americans ducked the Obamacare mandate in 2016, with 12.8 million claiming an exemption and 6.5 million paying the tax penalty.

The IRS was supposed to begin sending letters in June 2015 to encourage those who ducked the mandate to sign up, but the agency declined, saying it wanted to instead study behavior from Obamacares first full year of operations in 2014.

The agency also missed the deadline in 2016, but did send notices beginning at the end of the year.

Officials said they figured theyd get better reception if they sent them close to the time of enrollment for 2017.

Some 7.5 million letters were sent about half in English and half in Spanish.

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Obama's IRS 'misled' Obamacare customers: Audit - Washington Times

President Trump has outpaced his immediate predecessors when it comes to having his choices for federal judgeships confirmed.

The Senate this week approved a fifth Trump nominee, placing Trump on a faster pace for approvals than either President Barack Obama or President George W. Bush.

Most recently, Alabama lawyer Kevin Christopher Newsom was confirmed to a seat on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, on a 66-31 vote, with 16 Democrats joining the GOP on the affirmative side, the Washington Times reported.

Newsom was the third Trump pick for circuit judge to be approved so far. Combined with one district judge and the Supreme Court appointment of Neil Gorsuch, the Trump administration and the Republican-led Senate are well ahead of the normal pace for judicial approvals.

The Trump administration has moved faster on filling judicial vacancies compared to the past administrations, thanks to its commitment to working with and extensively consulting all senators, regardless of political affiliation, to select high-caliber nominees, Kelly Love, a White House spokesperson, told the newspaper.

Obama had no judges confirmed during his first six months at the White House and it took him until November 2009 to get three circuit nominees approved by the Senate. Bush didnt have three picks -- one circuit judge and two district judges -- confirmed until August of his first term.

Trump began his bid to reshape the lower federal courts in early May, when the White House announced 10 judicial nominees that officials described at the time as Trumps third wave of federal judicial appointments.

Two of the nominees originally were on the list of 21 candidates that the Trump transition team considered for the Supreme Court vacancy left by Antonin Scalias death. That seat was ultimately filled by Gorsuch.

The two nomiees were Justice Joan Larsen of the Michigan Supreme Court, nominated to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati; and Justice David Stras of the Minnesota Supreme Court, nominated to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

The other nominees, in addition to Newsom, were Amy Coney Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor nominated to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago; John Bush, a Louisville lawyer nominated to the 6th Circuit; Judge David C. Nye, nominated to the U.S. District Court for Idaho; Scott L. Palk, a former federal prosecutor nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma; Damien Schiff, nominated to federal claims court; Dabney L. Friedrich, nominated to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; and Judge Terry Moorer, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama.

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5th Trump judicial nominee confirmed, outpacing Obama, Bush - Fox News

This week I got a plea from Jess OConnell, chief executive officer of the Democratic National Committee, asking me to sign my name wishing Barack Obama a happy birthday.

Obama says his birthday is tomorrow, Aug. 4.

Maybe it is. Maybe it isnt. I just dont know. To me, the jury is still out.

Obama says he was born in Hawaii in 1961. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasnt. I just dont know. To me, the jury is still out.

Why am I so stubborn on this point?

Two reasons:

About the second point, OConnells email this week making the case for wishing Obama a happy birthday started out like this: The first bill that President Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. I like to think that first act set the tone for his administration: devoting every single day in office to making life better for the American people.

I wont argue with the merits or demerits of the Fair Pay Act, only the fact that nowhere in the U.S. Constitution will you find even a hint that Washington has any authority to determine how much its citizens, outside of government, should be paid. And, as to the suggestion Obama devoted every single day in office to making life better for the American people, Ill leave that to you to decide.

Rescuing our economy from the brink of disaster, reforming Wall Street, signing the Affordable Care Act, repealing Dont Ask, Dont Tell, taking bold action on climate change and signing the Paris Climate Agreement, putting the protections of DACA and DAPA into place there are more accomplishments than you can list, argued the DNC chief in trying to persuade me to say, Happy Birthday to Obama. Its a legacy that Im incredibly grateful for and proud to be fighting for every day.

Suffice it to say, I dont believe a word of this nonsense.

I dont believe a word that has ever come out of the mouth of Barack Obama.

I dont believe a word he has ever written or was ghostwritten on his behalf.

I dont believe any of the self-aggrandizement. I dont believe a word of the hype.

Even if I believed his birthday is tomorrow, I wouldnt send him a card, I wouldnt wish him well, and I wouldnt acknowledge any of his so-called accomplishments. For me, it will take a miracle to undo eight years of damage he inflicted on a great country.

Birthday shmirth-day.

I dont wish him ill. I just dont have any respect for him or his ideas. What he has decided to do in his post-presidency is even more contemptible than what he did with the reigns of illegitimate power serving, as he does, as a shadow president, intentionally undermining, at every turn, his duly elected successor.

I dont think you can point to another U.S. president who ever did that.

Its like he doesnt know what else to do with himself except for being a national community organizer.

Pathetic.

Am I bitter?

You bet.

I like the United States of America. I like the idea of it. I like the concept a nation under the rule of law, not the rule of men. I never liked the notion of a fundamental transformation of our country. Only someone who hates America could even hatch such a nightmarish thought. And his only notable accomplishment in life was coming very close to carrying it out.

Happy birthday?

Not from me.

Not this year, not next year nor the year after that.

No regrets from here on challenging everything Obama ever uttered, enacted or planned.

Get Joseph Farahs new book, The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age, and learn about the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith and your future in Gods Kingdom

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Obama! You say it's your birthday - WND.com