Trump: "Others cheat, I cheat ... and I'm counting on you to cheat too"
I have known Trump for 30 years and I have never believed a single word from him. But - I have to qualify - I never thought that he himself believed them. For example, one day when I was in his Trump Tower office, he took a yellow plastic card out of his wallet and stamped it on his gigantic desk as if he were the winning ace in a card game. . Look at this, he said. Only nine people in the world have it. On the card it said: "The bearer is entitled to free meals at all McDonald’s in the world." In a triumphant voice, Trump added: "Only I, Mother Teresa, Michael Jordan…!"
I pictured Mother Teresa at the wheel of her car, stopping at the McDonald's window in Calcutta, rolling down the window, leaning over to the manager and saying, "Give me ten thousand cheeseburgers, please."
I liked Trump in the same way that I liked Batman. When I was 8 years old, he was the living representation of the billionaire: a guy whose last name presided over skyscrapers, who traveled in huge private planes with two stunning blondes on each arm and thousand dollar bills sticking out of his ears. I met him when I was a columnist for Sports Illustrated magazine. I was playing a golf tournament when he came up to me with a broad, hair-growing grin. His then wife, Marla Maples, was smiling too. Here's a cat locked up, I thought. "You are my favorite sportswriter!" Trump thundered. What did they want? "Well," he said, "... you're already taking time to write about me." Okay, message got.
"THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT IT SOUNDS GOOD"
Nor was it a problem. Trump was the most accessible and boastful businessman in the world, the one who made the best headlines. Why would he say no to her? So when I set out to write Who's your caddy in 2003, a book in which I was going to caddy twelve famous players, I asked him if he wanted to star in a chapter. "Of course I do!" Was his reply.
When the day in question came, it turned out that he had no partner to play with, so he indicated to me that instead of being his caddy, I would be his partner. We played at the Trump National Golf Club Westchester, near New York, and the day was marked by a whirlwind of hype and hoax. That day, Trump didn't just lie about himself. He was also telling nonstop tricks on me. He was quite capable of walking up to greet one of the club members and say, "Meet a friend, Rick… he's the director of Sports Illustrated." Somewhat surprised, the guy was pretending to shake my hand, but Trump was already dragging me to another partner. Hi, this is Rick! He is the owner of Sports Illustrated. Without giving me time to clarify things, instantly he would say, “And look, Rick, this is the chef of the restaurant. He has won the award for the best hamburger cook in the world. The poor chef looked at me helplessly and shook his head, just like me. When we were alone, I asked him, "Donald, why are you telling all these lies about me?" "Because it sounds better," he replied. The "sound better" thing sums up Trump's modus operandi. The truth doesn't give a damn. The important thing is that it sounds good.
Trump is not telling the truth; he cheats too. That day we played golf in Westchester, he repeated several 'for the cap' shots if he didn't like the way they turned out. Among his pretexts: "You distracted me", "that bird flew past just as I was going to hit", "I slipped when hitting it with the stick."
"AT THE END OF THE GAME, TRUMP WAS THE WINNER"
Trump even gave himself a putt, and he didn't exactly cut. That is, he decided that I should accept that his ball was going to go into the hole flawlessly. This practice is illegal in competition, but fans often make these kinds of assignments… as long as the distance to the hole does not go much more than half a meter. Except if you are Trump. Even though the hole is two meters away, he tells you "it's done" and orders his caddy to record the result. But of course, when you're the one who wants to do the same, he raises his hand and says, "Go on, finish the hole properly."
The 'caddies' are so used to seeing him kick the ball into the fairway that they ended up giving him a nickname: Pelé
At the end of the game, the score indicated that he was the winner. At that point it was not worth arguing, the rules of the game were an entelechy like the sex of angels. I pledged the ten dollars.
Trump is not limited to cheating at golf. He cheats systematically. He drops the ball where it suits him, picks it up to move it, places it where he wants it. He fixes things, muddles everything. At Winged Foot, where Trump is a partner, the caddies were so used to seeing him kick the ball into the fairway that they ended up nicknamed him Pele.
“I played him once,” explains Bryan Marsal, a veteran club member and president of the 2020 US Open. “We played on a Saturday morning. During the first tee he was irreproachable. But suddenly he said, 'Have you noticed these two guys? They cheat. Have you seen me well? I cheat. And I hope you do them too, because we have to beat those two anyway. ' Donald has no qualms about cheating to win you over. Of course, he is also convinced that you too are going to cheat to beat him. So since there is a level playing field, given that everyone resorts to trickery, he doesn't think he's really cheating. '
"PASS ME ANOTHER BALL THAT THEY HAVE NOT SEEN ME"
He cheated even playing Tiger Woods. Shortly after he became president, he invited Woods, Dustin Johnson (then the world's number one golfer), and Brad Faxton, a famous television commentator. The journalist and Trump were going to play Woods and Johnson; As these last two were much better, they agreed to give some advantages to the team of the journalist and Trump ... but Trump considered that that alone was not enough. "At one point, on the second hit, Donald sent the ball into the water," recalls the commentator. "At the moment he said, 'Pass me another ball, Brad, they haven't seen me.' I passed it to him. But he also sent her into the water. Without giving it any further turns, he approached with the cart, dropped a third ball where it suited him, hit it and put it on the green ».
To all this, at the other end of the fairway, Woods had placed the ball a foot and a half from the hole. It was Woods for a reason, right? Trump's ball was still half a dozen meters from the hole. Suddenly Donald asked, 'Let's see. How are we hitting? ».
Tiger has been planted in three strokes. How are you doing, Mr. President?
Trump: "I'm going to play my room." The journalist laughed because he was actually going to deliver his seventh blow. "My jaw dropped," Faxon recalls. "’ Three to play fourth! "He said. And then, of course, he missed the shot. The truth was, it was a lot of fun. Donald kept giving himself putts, but it was funny about him. You almost wished it would. Because you had heard so many things about him that you wanted to see it with your own eyes, to tell about it later.
He was carrying a can of red paint. If his ball crashed into a tree, he would paint an 'x' on the trunk and the next day the tree would disappear
“Trump always manages to drive his own cart. Alone –explains caddy Greg Puga, semi-professional champion in 2000–. He also manages to be the first to shoot; then he gets on the cart and flies away. While the other three are busy taking his first shots, he is already in the middle of the fairway doing whatever he wants with his ball. I remember one time, we were at 18, he was the first to hit. He didn't do a bad job at all and, as always, he jumped on the cart and sped off. My player made a fantastic shot, he placed the ball in the middle of the fairway; I saw it with my own eyes. And well. When we got to the venue, my player's ball was nowhere to be found. There was no way to find her. And Trump was now on the green, with the hole poised for candy! Our ball was still missing, and Trump suddenly started yelling, 'I just birdie, guys! What do you think?'. With the ball held high, he jumped up and down with glee. And then we understood. The bastard had stolen the ball from us! He had come before, he had hit our ball and now he was bragging about his victory! The never seen ».
On another occasion, Trump was preparing to tackle one of the most famous holes in Los Angeles. Just to the left of the green is a pond. "I saw Trump's ball go into the water," one of the caddies tells me. 'I even saw the ripples on the surface! But when we got to his cart, the ball was in the street. We asked him how it was possible, and he replied: 'It must have been the tide.'
“I saw Trump's ball go into the water. I even saw the waves! But when we arrived, the ball was in the fairway. We asked him how it was possible, and he replied: 'It must have been the tide' "
At Trump National Golf Club Bedminster I speak to a group of caddies. Does the president cheat? Suddenly there is a deafening silence. One of them raises his hand. His expression is neutral, but his eyes are wide, as if he wanted to give me a hint. "Donald Trump never cheats," he says with imposing conviction. And he winks at me. Ah, I think I get it, I point. "The cheater is his caddy?"
They all burst out laughing. "To give you an idea, he always carries four balls in his pocket."
«He uses all the tricks to get the ball into every hole. At 18, I'm not exaggerating. In each and every one.
«What he wants is for you to do his dirty work, to get the ball out of the trees, to support him in his lies. We all know what there is.
As is so often the case with Trump, the caddies reject his cheating, but are also impressed by his impudence. "For a while, in the cart I carried a spray of red paint," says one of my interlocutors. If his ball hit a tree, he would paint a red 'X' on the trunk. The next day, the tree was gone ».
"THIS IS 'OFF THE RECORD', OF COURSE"
Trump cheats, yes. But the day I read "The Mother of All Lies," he almost gave me something. I'm referring to a tweet that Trump wrote in 2013 to billionaire Mark Cuban. Apparently Cuban had belittled him on a certain television show years ago. Trump vowed revenge and challenged Cuban to play a round of golf.
«Do you dare to play a game of golf? Counting this weekend, I have won 18 club championships. @mcuban hits as badly as a helpless and talented little girl. Mark is a loser »(Trump, Twitter, 03/19/2013).
Eighteen club championships? It is as if a defender from the Spanish League claims to have won 18 Champions League finals. The claim was ridiculous. Especially since Trump told me how he managed. According to him, he told me: “Every time I open a new golf course, he takes part in the first game, which I call the Club's First Championship. So I am the first champion of the club! This is off the record, of course.
Admittedly, it is an ethically abominable but ingenious system. And yes, I kept my promise of off the record for years. But Trump insisted on bragging about it, bragging about his 18 club championships. He said it half a dozen times during the 2016 election campaign. "I am a born winner," he proclaimed. And that's not where it happened. I feel insulted as a golfer. It doesn't bother me that someone makes political promises that they then don't keep. But I take golf personally. Integrity is inherent to this sport. And as I wrote a long time ago: «Golf is like a cyclist's shorts; it reveals a lot about the man who practices it.
TRUMP'S CART AND HAT
When it comes to the prevailing politeness of this sport - known by his label - Trump seems to come from another planet. For starters, he never takes off his cap during the traditional handshake at the end of a round. It is considered that a gentleman is obliged to discover himself. And he's famous for driving his cart around the green. Driving your cart on a green is like hanging out in the Sistine Chapel. Tire tracks dent the perfect surface of the green, making it difficult for your playing partner… and the next hundred golfers to shoot. In the words of one fan: "There is no worse abuse in the world."
Rick Reilly's book ‘Commander in cheat: how golf explains Trump’ is published by Headline
