As President Donald Trump faced one of the most significant challenges of his young presidency, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, wife Ivanka Trump, and several other key members of the president’s family were on a ski trip.

While Trump’s senior staff and members of the House GOP leadership struggled to woo congressional support and push the unpopular American Health Care Act to a successful vote, the president’s son-in-law was noticeably absent. As the Trump team dealt with FBI Director James Comey’s testimony Monday in which he confirmed there was an ongoing investigation into any potential ties with Russia and denied Trump’s claims that former President Obama “wiretapped” Trump Tower prior to the election, Kushner and Ivanka were in Aspen, Colorado.

“On one of the biggest weeks yet for White House, top Trump aide Jared Kushner is … in Aspen.”

“On one of the biggest weeks yet for White House, top Trump aide Jared Kushner is … in Aspen,” Shane Goldmacher, chief White House correspondent for Politico, tweeted Thursday.

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Kushner and his family apparently vacationed until Thursday — the day the original House AHCA vote was set to take place. When Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) failed to accrue enough support Thursday, the vote was pushed to Friday before being canceled altogether due to a lack of Republican support.

The president himself reportedly disapproved of Kushner’s absence during such a politically important week. A source close to Trump told CNN that the president “is upset that his son-in-law and senior adviser was not around during this crucial week.”

Although a White House spokesperson denied Trump’s frustration with Kushner and Ivanka, pictures continued to pop up on social media throughout the week of the couple, their children, and other Trump family members enjoying their holiday. Lara Trump, wife of Trump’s son Eric, posted a picture to her Instagram of the two couples and one of the Trump clan’s children bedecked in snow suits and skiing goggles on the Aspen slopes.

Meanwhile, Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Ryan, and Trump’s remaining on-the-scene advisers and staffers pushed forward a failed attempt to fulfill one of the president’s core campaign promises: to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Image is of paramount importance for the president and his officials, especially during the administration’s first 100 days in office. As such, it is crucial that the president and his officials remain above reproach. Both Trump’s predecessor and former President George W. Bush learned this lesson the hard way.

Obama experienced a public falling out when he hit a Martha’s Vineyard gold course minutes after delivering a speech addressing the horrific 2014 beheading of American journalist James Foley carried out by Islamic State terrorists. Members of both sides of the political aisle criticized Obama for the move as the country wondered what steps he would take toward combating terrorism.

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Trump’s predecessor later admitted that his behavior had been a mistake, although he did take some jabs at the press for their coverage of his vacation and his golfing spree.

“It’s always a challenge when you’re supposed to be on vacation,” Obama had said on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.” “Because you’re followed everywhere. And part of what I’d love is a vacation from the press. But there’s no doubt that after having talked to the families, where it was hard for me to hold back tears listening to the pain that they were going throughout, after the statement that I made, that you know, I should’ve anticipated the optics [of golf].”

“Optics … it matters. And I’m mindful of that,” Obama added later, according to CNN.

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Bush also faced intense backlash after an image surfaced of him peering through the window of Air Force One and surveying the carnage 2005’s Hurricane Katrina left in its wake. Many viewed the image as a representation of Bush’s marked distance from the national tragedy and the Americans suffering from its devastation. At the time, Bush had been on vacation and delayed visiting the affected area or directing the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.

Bush later admitted in his book, “Decision Points,” that the “photo of me hovering over the damage suggested I was detached from the suffering on the ground. That was not how I felt. But once that impression was formed, I couldn’t change it.”

As anxious Americans awaited the outcome of Washington’s health care debacle this week and attempted to anticipate how it would affect their lives, Trump and many members of the GOP leadership worked tirelessly. As White House press secretary Sean Spicer noted, Trump “left everything on the field” in his work to bring the AHCA to fruition. But the country appeared to take note of Kushner’s marked absence so early on in the Trump administration and during such a crucial week for the president’s legislative agenda.