Breaking Down How Much Time Biden Spent on Vacation While President – It’s Not 40%

• A claim popularized by the Republican National Committee that U.S. President Joe Biden spent 40% of his presidency on vacation stretched the truth. The RNC treated partial days outside of the White House as full days on vacation, made outright errors in its calculations and included locations which are not always used as vacation settings in its analysis.

• Due to the duties of the office, the president is never truly on vacation. Therefore, Snopes focused on determining how many days Biden spent in a vacation setting, which was about 117 or 118 full days, or about 8% of his presidency, depending on which source you use. Biden also spent an additional 66 partial days in a vacation setting.

• A White House spokesperson said Biden works “every single day.” His administration’s research said Biden spent 60 total weekdays away from the White House with no public events, or about 4.5% of his presidency.

• Much of a president’s work schedule is private and not publicly reported. Snopes found 76 to 77 days where Biden spent some or all of his time in a vacation setting and there was no public evidence that he was working, or about 5% of his presidency.

• Snopes also determined that Biden spent an additional 109 full days at Camp David or his personal residence in Delaware — where Biden often works away from the White House — with no publicly reported events and15 days where the only public events involved campaigning for his re-election.

In the months after former U.S. President Joe Biden took office in 2021, a claim began circulating that Biden spent 40% of his presidency on vacation. 

Examples of this claim appear on Reddit (archived), X (archived) and Facebook (archived). Snopes received questions from readers about this claim as early as October 2021. There are media reports spanning from 2022 (archived) to 2024 (archived) repeating the rumor. In 2022, the New York Post (archived) claimed the rumor originated from a Republican National Committee analysis: 

The 19-month tally of Biden trips was assembled by the RNC and is consistent with independent journalistic counts. It includes days that Biden spent at his Delaware residences as well as days at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, and trips to Nantucket, Massachusetts, and Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

Additionally, the Republican National Committee published press releases in early 2023 (archived) and early 2024 (screenshot) claiming Biden had, at those points in time, spent 40% of his presidency on vacation. The RNC also publicized the claim on X (archived) in 2024, along with a video of Biden on the beach: 

A comprehensive Snopes analysis of Biden’s public calendar, research from his administration and pool reports — detailed daily dispatches from the White House press corps tracking Biden’s movements — determined that the Republican National Committee stretched the truth. It is difficult to define what a “vacation” is for a president, given that the president is never away from his duties. Thus, Snopes determined how many days Biden was in a vacation setting. 

Based on this definition, Biden spent 117 or 118 full days of his 1,461-day presidency on vacation, or about 8% of his presidency. He also spent 66 days, about 4.5% of his presidency, partially in a vacation setting. 

(The pool reports say Biden left his vacation home early on April 13, 2024, whereas his official public calendar as published by Roll Call, an insider publication which covers all things Capitol Hill, said he spent April 13 in his vacation home and left on April 14, 2024. That would change how many full days Biden was on vacation, but it would not affect the number of partial days he was on vacation.) 

Altogether, that is 183 or 184 days — and on 107 of those days, there is public evidence Biden spent time working in his official capacity as president, which does not mean he was not working, as much of the president’s working schedule is not public. Thus, there were 76 or 77 days where Biden spent time in a vacation setting with no public evidence he was working, or about 5% of his presidency. 

Debunking the Republican National Committee’s Claim

Here’s what Jake Schneider, author of the two RNC press releases, said in an X direct message when Snopes asked how he determined that Biden spent 40% of his presidency on vacation: 

I’m happy to share my underlying data with you. Basically, we use the standard of all or part of any day spent at a Biden-style vacation destination (e.g., Wilmington/Rehoboth/Camp David/etc) as a vacation day — which is the exact same standard The Washington Post assigned to President Trump during his first term.

Schneider did not return additional questions about what sources he used to figure out Biden’s location and how he decided what a vacation setting was. The RNC press releases also provide images showing each day Biden was purportedly on vacation for 2021, 2022 and 2023. 

Calendars created by the Republican National Committee claiming to show when Biden was on vacation. (Republican National Committee/Snopes Illustration)

But an investigation by Snopes found that the RNC’s analysis made sweeping assumptions and included outright errors. 

As acknowledged by Schneider, the RNC included partial days in a vacation setting. However, the party’s analysis failed to take into account how much or how little time in the day was spent traveling to or in a vacation setting. 

For example, on September 3, 2021, the RNC calendar says Biden was on vacation. But according to Biden’s public calendar, he spent most of that day in Louisiana touring Hurricane Ida relief efforts, meeting local leaders and delivering remarks in his official capacity as president. He does not leave Louisiana until 7:08 p.m. local time, or 8:08 p.m. EST, before arriving at his personal residence in Delaware at 11:11 p.m. In another example, the RNC claimed Biden was on vacation on Sept. 11, 2022, when he arrived at the Pentagon around 8:46 a.m. and spent most of the day at 9/11 remembrance events. 

The RNC said Biden was on vacation on days when he arrived at the White House early in the morning or departed for a vacation setting late in the day. In one instance, the RNC said Biden was on vacation on April 22, 2022 when he was working and according to the pool report, did not arrive in Delaware until 12:24 a.m. the next day. In another instance, the RNC said he was on vacation on Sept. 13, 2022, when he left the White House to travel to Delaware and vote before returning to the White House, all on the same day. 

On some days, Biden spent some time in Delaware visiting gravestones or attending private memorial services to commemorate deceased loved ones, such as his son or his first wife, and the RNC included them as “vacation” days.

The RNC also did not appear to have double-checked its work. On Aug. 13, 2022, for example, the RNC said Biden was on vacation, but according to his public calendar and the pool report, he was at the White House all day. On the flip side, the president left for Camp David on Aug. 17, 2023, but the RNC does not note this. Errors like these occurred several times. 

Defining What Counts as Vacation 

Finally, the RNC analysis included days spent at Camp David or at Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware. According to the White House, Camp David, a Maryland country residence, “has offered every president since Franklin D. Roosevelt an opportunity for solitude and tranquility, as well as an ideal place to work and host foreign dignitaries.” 

Thus, while sometimes used for recreation, presidents, including Biden, often work at Camp David, where he has reportedly met with his national security team, signed executive orders and hosted prime ministers. 

Biden spent many weekends as president at his residence in Wilmington, Delaware, a practice he’s had since his time as a senator, according to both the White House and news reports. A White House official told Snopes that Biden does not treat his Wilmington residence as a vacation home. 

Based on Biden’s public calendar and pool reports, Biden frequently works from Wilmington. On May 30, 2021, for example, he delivered remarks at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle Country, Delaware; on Aug. 6, 2021, he leaves the White House and arrives in Delaware before receiving his weekly economic briefing. He has hosted multiple foreign prime ministers at his Delaware home on the same day.

Finally, Biden has a vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware that he frequents, suggesting that if Biden was to return to Delaware for vacation, he would go there instead. 

While Camp David and Wilmington are not always vacation settings, Snopes could not determine how often Biden may have treated them as such. Snopes found that Biden spent 109 full days in Delaware or Camp David with no evidence of work on his public calendar or in pool reports, or 7.5% of his presidency. 

Here are all of the vacation settings Snopes included in its analysis: Biden’s vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden’s annual Thanksgiving tradition where he and his family travel to Nantucket, Massachusetts, vacations in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and a friend’s home in Santa Ynez, California. 

The Biden Administration’s Response 

Andrew Bates, the Biden White House’s deputy press secretary, said in an emailed statement that “President Biden works hard every single day — including the few days he has been on vacation during his term — which is reflected in the most accomplished record of any modern administration.” 

He added that presidents “have been able to perform all their duties from anywhere in the world for decades.” 

According to an Aug. 19, 2024 pool report, Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, when discussing his then-upcoming vacation to Santa Ynez, California, also said “presidents are never on vacation — he’s president wherever he is.” 

There is evidence that Biden works while on vacation. On June 3, 2022, for example, he delivered remarks on a May jobs report from Rehoboth Beach Convention Center. There was also a weekend in September 2022 where he told the press pool he was at his Rehoboth home because the Secret Service was working on his Wilmington home and he was thus “not on vacation.” 

Research presented by a White House official said there were 60 total weekdays from 2021 to 2024 where Biden “had no public events and was not at the White House,” or about 4.1% of his presidency. The Biden administration did not include weekends and federal holidays in its analysis and added that this list does not represent total days in vacation areas. 

It is also worth noting that within those 60 weekdays, there were days the White House noted that Biden had public events not on his public calendar but noted in pool reports, such as briefings on foreign wars and bill signings. Snopes also cross-referenced this list with Biden’s public calendar and discovered that the White House included days in which Biden had his “Daily Briefing,” an event that nearly always appears on weekdays on Biden’s public calendar but is not open to the public. 

While the White House did not return multiple questions about whether, legally or officially, the president gets weekends and federal holidays off, it is true that presidents cannot fully disengage from their job. “Most presidents are always on the clock; even when they are not working, they are on call, and can be pulled into discussions at a moment’s notice,” said Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University. 

So…How Many Days Was Biden on Vacation, Then? 

It is impossible for Snopes to determine how many days Biden was on vacation and did not do any work or primarily spent time away from work. According to Dallek, presidents do “a ton of work” not visible to the public or on their official public schedule, including “behind-the-scenes conversations, briefings, reading memos, preparing for speeches, prepping for interviews and more.” 

“A president taking a vacation is a bit of misnomer, although some presidents take the job more seriously and work harder than others,” Dallek added. 

Therefore, we can only determine how many days Biden was in a vacation setting, as well as days he was in a vacation setting and there is no public evidence, either from his public calendar or from pool reports, that Biden was working. 

Many of these “working vacation” days only included one or two publicly reported events and were usually noted in the pool report as information given by unnamed White House officials. Snopes did not include informal conversations Biden had with the press as work, given that it is nearly impossible for the president to avoid press in public areas. 

As noted at the beginning, our analysis found 117 or 118 full days of his presidency on vacation and 76 days partially in a vacation setting, with 107 of the total 183 or 184 days showing evidence that Biden worked. There are 33 of these days where the public calendar does not show evidence Biden worked, but the pool reports say a White House official told a reporter that Biden was engaging in at least one work activity, such as a call with a foreign leader or a national security meeting. 

Snopes did not include days Biden traveled for work as well as days Biden was campaigning for other lawmakers and officials because campaigning for others is part of building and maintaining working relationships, as well as an attempt to ensure that your party remains in power and can pass its desired legislation more effectively. 

However, Snopes did determine how many days Biden campaigned for himself because some may consider that time away from presidential duties. There were 15 days Biden campaigned for himself and there were no events on his public calendar; 14 of those days did not have work events recorded by the press pool. For 62 days, Biden spent some time campaigning; 57 of those days were also spent working and five of those days were also spent in a vacation setting.

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