Fore! Play

 

Fore! Play

I must admit that I think, perhaps, the more time Donald Trump plays golf, perhaps the better for the country. But then, I visualize his “replacement killer,” JD Vance, taking over… and I cannot see any good options. Trump is, after all, the master of distraction, a man with the ability to fabricate an enemy or an “overwhelming issue” that “only I can fix it.” But inevitably that fabrication evokes a Trumpian response that creates more havoc, more confusion and more permanent damage than the calm that usually preceded it. So, them “eat cake” and let Trump play through.

Here’s the headline: “President Trump has spent 25.9% of his Presidency to date Golfing — at an estimated cost of $50.4 million to US taxpayers.” A new study presented in the June 15th TotalProSports.com. This only counts the time allocated to presidential activities and does not address the time the Donald rearranges his schedule to travel to the various courses where he plays, many of which are Trump courses.

“According to golf writer Alan Shipnuck, the POTUS cares more about the sport than he does serious global issues...’I have no doubt that Donald Trump cares more about the state of professional golf than he does about Gaza or Ukraine.’” TotalProSports.com.

I must admit that I am truly curious about Trump’s undergrad grades at Wharton (University of Pennsylvania), particularly in economics. His failure to see tariffs as consumer taxes, his mistaken belief that cutting taxes instantly turns the rich into lean, meaning job creating machines (which has never happened), his utter failure to understand how the financial chaos of his destabilizing inconsistency has frozen so many businesses from making necessary investment decisions and his desire to rewrite government labor and growth statistics in new numbers that would always reflect Trump economic success even as the nation were unraveling in confusion… are seriously alarming.

Even given Trump’s recent judicial track record, the growing international revulsion of all things dollar-denominated (especially US treasuries used to finance our exploding deficit), and the violence of his masked ICE agents and supporting military troops in immigration efforts under the mistaken and oft-repeated Trumpian phrase “I have the greatest voter mandate in history” belie an unparalleled litany of lose, lose, lose. But if Trump substitutes totalitarian rule to cover up his “loser” reality, the United States and everyone in it will be the true losers. Most of the rest of the world seems to recognize our “clown prince,” but that “clownishness” may just ben what got him elected here.

Back to the golf course. Legend has it, with more than a few eyewitnesses in support, that Trump hates losing so much, hates looking bad even for an instant, he engages “hidden figures” in some of his golfing outings to move a mishit ball, lost in the foliage, miraculously onto the green ready for that birdie putt. You’d think his name were Donald “Mulligan” (golf-speak for an unauthorized do-over) Trump… but those who play with him know that a polite loss (unless you are the best pro on tour) is required.

Trump’s proclivity for transparently incorrect hyperbole puts him in solid comparison with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, a mediocre golfer who, according to local reportage, has an amazing track record for holes-in-one. Reality is a harsh mistress. For an amateur golfer, getting that elusive hole-in-one has a statistical likelihood of one in 1,700 rounds of golf. Scratch golfers who play regularly can expect that elusive reward only once every 7.5 years, and even the top pros don’t get better than once every 3 years.

Why does any of this matter? Because this establishes both what is most important to the President and his character. We now know about his Bible-selling, gold sneaker marketing, expensive watch availability, his favor-driven practice of rewarding only his biggest donors and most recently, the millions, perhaps billions from his ventures into cryptoland. But all that grift was already painfully obvious from simply observing how he plays golf.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we’ve never had a convicted felon as President of the United States… but just watching his golf game…