From lies to cheating, does Trump play golf as he rules?
In the world of golf, there is an old saying that you can discover the true nature of a person by playing just one round with them. And in the vast majority of cases, it turns out.
For example, by observing your playmate closely, you can quickly determine if they are meticulous or messy, if they are hot-tempered or temperate, if they are reserved or extrovert, if they are altruistic or egocentric, and of course. , whether he is rule-abiding or cheating.
In a sport where etiquette and loyalty are everything, and where the players themselves must impose the penalties provided for in the regulations, the last criterion is obviously very heavy. If you cheat in golf, very quickly the word will spread at the 19th hole. Your reputation will suffer and other players like COVID-19 will avoid including you in their quartet.
Golfers are particularly wary of cheaters. The oral tradition of sport, which nevertheless spans nearly six centuries, is that there is a very high chance that people who cheat in golf will act the same in all aspects of their lives.
And that brings us, if you hadn't seen it coming, to Donald Trump.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit North America in March, daily briefings from the President of the United States have been broadcast live by 24/7 news channels.
And with each passing day, his rewriting history and his verbal jousting with reporters reminds me of Trump's character traits, amply documented in a book called Commander in Cheat, How Golf Explains Trump. To date, this is my most interesting and entertaining read of the past year.
What's more, this book was written by former Sports Illustrated columnist Rick Reilly, who is arguably the best in the business in North America. Based on personal experience (Reilly has known Donald Trump for several decades) and on the testimonies of hundreds of professional and amateur golfers, cadets and personalities who have rubbed shoulders with the President of the United States on the fairways, the author establishes beyond a shadow of a doubt that Trump is a compulsive cheater.
The "Pelé" of golf who moves his ball with his feet
There really is no plot there. On the other hand, from chapter to chapter, the examples of deceit and deception are so numerous and diverse that the reader's jaw almost ends up falling.
For example, Trump claims he has won 18 club championships, each time on courses he owns, when such a feat is science fiction to experts.
None of those 18 wins are documented, by the way. He has even proclaimed himself club champion without having made it to the championship, claiming that he would have beaten the winner if he had been present! The President of the United States claims to have a handicap of 2.8, when in reality his fellow players and cadets estimate it to be around 10.
Cadets nickname him Pelé because they see him constantly moving his ball with his feet. Gaming partners say they saw Trump pretend to hit a ball from a sand trap and run towards the hole (a ball concealed in one hand) and begin to celebrate the execution of a brilliant stroke near the pennant! Others remember watching Trump retrieve a ball that a playmate had hit on the green, then toss it into a sand trap, to improve his chances of winning the game.
We end up wondering why Donald Trump plays golf
The President of the United States owns 14 golf courses around the world and administers 5 more. And according to the testimonies gathered by Rick Reilly, he conducts his business exactly as he plays! Contractors who have carried out work on its golf courses say they have not been paid or only partially. Neighbors say they have been intimidated or harassed. Trump wanted to force them to move because he felt the appearance of their homes undermined the prestige of his golf clubs.
There is also, in particular, this story of acquiring a golf course in Jupiter, Florida, which Trump got his hands on for a pittance. He then made a huge profit by robbing the club's members and shareholders of $ 45 million, decreeing that their shares, acquired at a cost of $ 200,000 each, were no longer redeemable.
Oh ! And that's without counting this permission that Trump asked political authorities in the Doonbeg area of Ireland so that they could build a 28-kilometer-long stone wall in Doughmore Bay. Trump wanted to protect his golf course from rising sea levels.
When in Washington, the president ridicules environmentalists and says climate change does not exist. However, its position differs greatly when it comes to defending its investments. In fact, a month ago, at the start of the pandemic, Trump's request was denied by an independent committee in the Doonbeg region because the proposed wall, even reduced, threatened the dunes and surrounding ecosystems.
Since the beginning of his presidency, there has been a great deal of excellent political literature written on Donald Trump. But for the reasons listed above, finding out how the President of the United States behaves when playing the sport he loves most - and when managing his personal affairs - also says a lot about the character. most controversial policy of the 21st century.
After having read Commander in Cheat, How Golf Explains Trump, one cannot be surprised to hear Donald Trump praise daily the "exceptional clairvoyance" he has shown since the start of the pandemic and congratulate himself on having saved "hundreds of thousands of lives". And we hardly frown when we learn that Trump is cutting funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) while a serious pandemic rages on the planet, because the WHO's rhetoric does not highlight his administration. .
If you cheat at golf like Donald Trump does, it means no shot is allowed. And that there is probably no limit to what you can do in the political arena.
