Donald Trump Says he is 'Working Hard' at New Jersey Golf Club

Washington: Three days into a two-week golf getaway at his New Jersey country club, President Donald Trump assured Americans via Twitter Monday that he remains focused on managing the country.

"Working hard from New Jersey while White House goes through long planned renovation," Trump said as part of a long batch of tweets mostly aimed at bashing critics.

"Going to New York next week for more meetings," he added.

With critics assailing him over the frequency of his golf outings six months into his presidency, Trump insisted Saturday that he was not on holiday.

"This is not a vacation - meetings and calls!" he stressed.

During the previous administration, Trump regularly bashed president Barack Obama for playing golf and not working enough.

But since he became president in January, Trump appears to be a much more frequent visitor to the links -- though the White House steadfastly refuses to confirm he has played any golf during his numerous weekends at his own resorts.

That makes it hard to determine just how much time Trump puts into work and play when he is away from the White House.

The only thing certain is that he continues to watch television news broadcasts assiduously, as evidenced by his virulent Twitter attacks Monday against Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, who, appearing on CNN early Monday, expressed strong support for the investigation into alleged collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.

"Never in US history has anyone lied or defrauded voters like Senator Richard Blumenthal," Trump said, pointing to the senator's past false statement that he had served in Vietnam when he was in the US Marine Corps reserves.

Trump added, meanwhile, a denial of the "hoax Russia collusion" story, amid reports that special investigation chief Robert Mueller has opened a new grand jury probe.

As he does regularly, Trump also took the time in his Monday morning tweetstorm to blast mainstream US media for "fake news" over his alleged dwindling popularity in polls, declaring "The Trump base is far bigger & stronger than ever before."