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Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"Reilly pokes more holes in Trump's claims than there are sand traps on all of his courses combined. It is by turns amusing and alarming." -- The New Yorker
"Golf is the spine of this shocking, wildly humorous book, but humanity is its flesh and spirit." -- Chicago Sun-Times
"Every one of Trump's most disgusting qualities surfaces in golf." -- The Ringer
An outrageous indictment of Donald Trump's appalling behavior when it comes to golf -- on and off the green -- and what it reveals about his character.
Donald Trump loves golf. He loves to play it, buy it, build it, and operate it. He owns 14 courses around the world and runs another five, all of which he insists are the best on the planet. He also claims he's a 3 handicap, almost never loses, and has won an astonishing 18 club championships.
How much of all that is true? Almost none of it, acclaimed sportswriter Rick Reilly reveals in this unsparing look at Trump in the world of golf.
Based on Reilly's own experiences with Trump as well as interviews with over 100 golf pros, amateurs, developers, and caddies, Commander in Cheat is a startling and at times hilarious indictment of Trump and his golf game. You'll learn how Trump cheats (sometimes with the help of his caddies and Secret Service agents), lies about his scores (the "Trump Bump"), tells whoppers about the rank of his courses and their worth (declaring that every one of them is worth $50 million), and tramples the etiquette of the game (driving on greens doesn't help). Trump doesn't brag so much, though, about the golf contractors he stiffs, the course neighbors he intimidates, or the way his golf decisions wind up infecting his political ones.
For Trump, it's always about winning. To do it, he uses the tricks he picked up from the hustlers at the public course where he learned the game as a college kid, and then polished as one of the most bombastic businessmen of our time. As Reilly writes, "Golf is like bicycle shorts. It reveals a lot about a man." Commander in Cheat "paints a side-splitting portrait of a congenital cheater" (Esquire), revealing all kinds of unsightly truths Trump has been hiding.
"Reilly pokes more holes in Trump's claims than there are sand traps on all of his courses combined. It is by turns amusing and alarming." -- The New Yorker
"Golf is the spine of this shocking, wildly humorous book, but humanity is its flesh and spirit." -- Chicago Sun-Times
"Every one of Trump's most disgusting qualities surfaces in golf." -- The Ringer
An outrageous indictment of Donald Trump's appalling behavior when it comes to golf -- on and off the green -- and what it reveals about his character.
Donald Trump loves golf. He loves to play it, buy it, build it, and operate it. He owns 14 courses around the world and runs another five, all of which he insists are the best on the planet. He also claims he's a 3 handicap, almost never loses, and has won an astonishing 18 club championships.
How much of all that is true? Almost none of it, acclaimed sportswriter Rick Reilly reveals in this unsparing look at Trump in the world of golf.
Based on Reilly's own experiences with Trump as well as interviews with over 100 golf pros, amateurs, developers, and caddies, Commander in Cheat is a startling and at times hilarious indictment of Trump and his golf game. You'll learn how Trump cheats (sometimes with the help of his caddies and Secret Service agents), lies about his scores (the "Trump Bump"), tells whoppers about the rank of his courses and their worth (declaring that every one of them is worth $50 million), and tramples the etiquette of the game (driving on greens doesn't help). Trump doesn't brag so much, though, about the golf contractors he stiffs, the course neighbors he intimidates, or the way his golf decisions wind up infecting his political ones.
For Trump, it's always about winning. To do it, he uses the tricks he picked up from the hustlers at the public course where he learned the game as a college kid, and then polished as one of the most bombastic businessmen of our time. As Reilly writes, "Golf is like bicycle shorts. It reveals a lot about a man." Commander in Cheat "paints a side-splitting portrait of a congenital cheater" (Esquire), revealing all kinds of unsightly truths Trump has been hiding.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published April 2, 2019
1,165 people are currently reading
1,711 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 688 reviews
January 22, 2023
This was a very interesting perspective on president Trump and how he plays golf. I truly do believe that you can tell much about the character of a person based on the way they interact when competing in any type of endeavor. If the allegations in this book are true (some or all) then I think it brings up fundamental questions that should be reflected on by voters before 2020.
April 9, 2019
I couldn't put this book down. Amazon delivered it yesterday afternoon and I spent all evening at my local watering hole devouring this book. I've never picked up a golf club or been a fan of Donald Trump but I've read books on both topics and this book takes the cake. Rick Reilly uses golf's Trump techniques (cheating and lying) to explain his terrible practices in office. Trump has been a notorious cheater in golf for decades, something he can't argue against; it's on film, hundreds of athletes, celebrities, and politicians will attest to it, he's admitted it, and his caddies joke that "Trump doesn't cheat... because we do it for him." Trump boasts that he's won 18 golf tournaments, although not ONE can be verified (16 are easy to disprove). He usually bullies course managers to put his name up on the trophy plaques because he "plays better than most other players all the time (most tournaments he never even played in!). Reilly then elaborates on Trump's business practices: specifically with his golf courses (lawsuits galore), his fight against paying contractors in full, and his failure to ban any Muslim countries that he had golf interests in. The book also discusses all presidents and their attachment (or lack thereof) to golf and how it influenced their presidential terms. "Obama wound up playing 306 rounds in office, or once every 9.5 days. Trump is on pace to, over eight years, to obliterate Obama's number - 759 rounds, which goes to show you that bone spurs do heal very nicely." The humor, the insight, the golfing parallels, and the writing make this book a showstopper. It was eye opening and golf was the perfect lens to view Trump and his "ethics" through. "In life, we're defined by the obstacles we overcome. That's the stuff we hang on our inner wall. But if you cheat to get around those obstacles, you never know the thrill of actually beating them. It's like buying a trophy in a pawn shop. You can shine it up and show it off and pretend you won it, but when you get close to it, it only reflects the face of a loser." make this book your most read political/sports book of 2019!
May 15, 2024
Rick Reilly is a reward winning American sports writer who became well known as the back page columnist of Sports Illustrated before moving to ESPN, where he wrote an opinion column and hosted a television interview series. Here he shares � brutally � his views on The Donald as a golfer and as a man. One sentence towards the end of this book, when he sums up his reasons for writing it, captures his thoughts rather well. In part, it reads:
Trump doesn’t do golf any differently than he does politics, women, or hurricane maps, which is to say, as crooked as a corkscrew.
So it's worth keeping in mind that Reilly has such strong views on Trump that he makes a CNN newscaster seem evenhanded. There’s quite a bit here about how Trump cheats on his golf handicap, cheats on the course � all the time � chisels and cheats at business, and generally treats a lot of people badly. To say the book doesn’t show the man in a good light is to significantly understate the matter. This is pretty much a character assassination from start to finish.
In truth, as well as the wall of negative stuff there’s also a fair number of people who state that although the ex-President does take quite a few liberties on the course (kicking the ball out of the rough, giving himself putts etc) he’s actually great fun to play with. It’s the stories about his golf related business activities that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up � if even a small portion of what is claimed herein is true then he’s definitely a man you shouldn’t be doing any business with.
It's a fun read, if a little repetitive in places. For me, there aren’t too many real surprises here � DT comes across pretty much as the man I thought he was.
Trump doesn’t do golf any differently than he does politics, women, or hurricane maps, which is to say, as crooked as a corkscrew.
So it's worth keeping in mind that Reilly has such strong views on Trump that he makes a CNN newscaster seem evenhanded. There’s quite a bit here about how Trump cheats on his golf handicap, cheats on the course � all the time � chisels and cheats at business, and generally treats a lot of people badly. To say the book doesn’t show the man in a good light is to significantly understate the matter. This is pretty much a character assassination from start to finish.
In truth, as well as the wall of negative stuff there’s also a fair number of people who state that although the ex-President does take quite a few liberties on the course (kicking the ball out of the rough, giving himself putts etc) he’s actually great fun to play with. It’s the stories about his golf related business activities that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up � if even a small portion of what is claimed herein is true then he’s definitely a man you shouldn’t be doing any business with.
It's a fun read, if a little repetitive in places. For me, there aren’t too many real surprises here � DT comes across pretty much as the man I thought he was.
April 7, 2019
I really enjoyed the project of this book-- rather than dive into the maddening hand-wave-ium that typical critiques of Trump's character devolve into (e.g. "who cares if he's a philanderer, don't all politicians do that," "all rich people lie about how much money they have," "he's just using colorful language about immigrants, can't you take a joke," etc etc.), Reilly picks an area that is not as emotionally charged to unpack what kind of person Trump is. And that area is his golf game. Reilly has a really enjoyable narrative voice and provides a wide ranging view of Trump's relationship with golf: how he got into it, how other presidents have related to the game, the documented lies/exaggerations that Trump has told about his golfing abilities and accomplishments, etc. Like I said, this is a smart approach to evaluating Trump's character in a sport that takes honesty & honor very seriously, and Reilly explicitly ties his outrage to the affronts to the game, not Trump's politics, which I think was another smart choice in terms of making his depiction less polarizing or charged. But in studying this part of Trump's life, we're able to get an important window into the man's values & character without having to wade through the truly painful recaps of his more egregious past sins. Overall, would definitely recommend
June 6, 2019
I know nothing about golf and almost didn't read this book. But, boy, am I glad I did. The author describes how Trump's approach to golf is like his approach to the presidency. And the author is funny.
"Somebody should point out that the way Trump does golf is sort of the way he does a presidency, which is to operate as though the rules are for other people."
"We played his Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, New York, and it was like spending the day in a hyperbole hurricane."
'When we were alone, I finally said, “Donald, why are you lying about me?� “Sounds better,� he said. Sounding better is Trump’s m.o. It colors everything he says and does. The truth doesn’t break an egg with Trump. It’s all about how it sounds, how it looks, and the fact checkers can go run a 100-yard dash in a 50-yard gym.'
Of all the books I've read about Trump, this one is
* The most enlightening
* The funniest
* The least depressing
Highly recommended.
"Somebody should point out that the way Trump does golf is sort of the way he does a presidency, which is to operate as though the rules are for other people."
"We played his Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briarcliff Manor, New York, and it was like spending the day in a hyperbole hurricane."
'When we were alone, I finally said, “Donald, why are you lying about me?� “Sounds better,� he said. Sounding better is Trump’s m.o. It colors everything he says and does. The truth doesn’t break an egg with Trump. It’s all about how it sounds, how it looks, and the fact checkers can go run a 100-yard dash in a 50-yard gym.'
Of all the books I've read about Trump, this one is
* The most enlightening
* The funniest
* The least depressing
Highly recommended.
April 8, 2019
Another entry in the hate-n-tell library, which will swell exponentially ad infinitum - seems that white entitled golf players loathe the disrepute that Trump is bringing to the game. I did enjoy details of other presidents golf playing.
Favourite thought is - 'not a mulligan, but a billigan in Clinton's case'
May 28, 2019
Rick Reilly loves golf. It's one of the most important things in his life. He's written numerous books about it. And now the sitting president is spending a third of his time at the golf course sullying golf's good name by breaking as many rules as he can get away with. And Reilly is not having it.
My opinion of Trump is already pretty well firmed up, so I don't know what I was expecting to glean from this. I don't golf, but I do play a lot of games, and I find the experience and discipline of gaming to be important enough that I've drilled it into my kids. If you beat my seven-year-old at something, he'll shake your hand and say "Good game" and even my four-year-old knows what the word "sportsmanship" means. So while the flagrant cheating stories are funny, it gets pretty infuriating to see example after example of man doing so and consistently getting away with it because reasons.
Now, there's quite a bit more to the book than just the golf. It goes into Trump's purchasing and operating of courses. The real dynamite is in the second-to-last chapter, in which Reilly examines a lot of Trump's foreign policy through the lens of his golf obsession. Why were UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia excluded from the Muslim Travel Ban (TM)? Because they're all countries where Trump owns or seeks to own a golf course. It's where he talks about Eric Trump bragging to Golf Digest that the Russians were paying for all the golf courses. Now, some of this may be Reilly being a golf writer and "when your only tool is a hammer every problem looks like a nail" syndrome. But a lot of what he has to say feels like it has teeth. The most revealing thing in the book: he talks about club resignation fees. They're basically a legal Ponzi scheme. You pay a hefty deposit (which may be on the order of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars) in addition to your yearly membership fees and these are forfeited until someone else takes over your membership. When you buy a Club, you also get the fees. These are supposed to sit in the bank to pay for repairs in case of a sudden disaster. Reilly thinks Trump has been pocketing them. There's a lot more to that--this is the ten-thousand-foot version--and the book is probably worth reading for that penultimate chapter alone.
Apart from that, Reilly's prose is breezy and effortlessly readable. His tone is a little snarkier than I'd like at times, but he never comes across as a jerk or anything. He does some, but not quite enough, to catch non-golfers up to speed, and that made passages a bit frustrating, but overall I still liked the book.
My opinion of Trump is already pretty well firmed up, so I don't know what I was expecting to glean from this. I don't golf, but I do play a lot of games, and I find the experience and discipline of gaming to be important enough that I've drilled it into my kids. If you beat my seven-year-old at something, he'll shake your hand and say "Good game" and even my four-year-old knows what the word "sportsmanship" means. So while the flagrant cheating stories are funny, it gets pretty infuriating to see example after example of man doing so and consistently getting away with it because reasons.
Now, there's quite a bit more to the book than just the golf. It goes into Trump's purchasing and operating of courses. The real dynamite is in the second-to-last chapter, in which Reilly examines a lot of Trump's foreign policy through the lens of his golf obsession. Why were UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia excluded from the Muslim Travel Ban (TM)? Because they're all countries where Trump owns or seeks to own a golf course. It's where he talks about Eric Trump bragging to Golf Digest that the Russians were paying for all the golf courses. Now, some of this may be Reilly being a golf writer and "when your only tool is a hammer every problem looks like a nail" syndrome. But a lot of what he has to say feels like it has teeth. The most revealing thing in the book: he talks about club resignation fees. They're basically a legal Ponzi scheme. You pay a hefty deposit (which may be on the order of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars) in addition to your yearly membership fees and these are forfeited until someone else takes over your membership. When you buy a Club, you also get the fees. These are supposed to sit in the bank to pay for repairs in case of a sudden disaster. Reilly thinks Trump has been pocketing them. There's a lot more to that--this is the ten-thousand-foot version--and the book is probably worth reading for that penultimate chapter alone.
Apart from that, Reilly's prose is breezy and effortlessly readable. His tone is a little snarkier than I'd like at times, but he never comes across as a jerk or anything. He does some, but not quite enough, to catch non-golfers up to speed, and that made passages a bit frustrating, but overall I still liked the book.
April 28, 2019
Okay, after reading Rick Reilly's "Commander in Cheat", I know that Donald Trump is a cheat at golf. He's a cheater both when playing the game and at business deals with the courses and resorts he owns. He cheats when he golfs with others and cheats when he plays by himself. He cheats like he breathes. Yet, Trump has friends who love playing with him. He has caddies who love caddying for him, and even help in his cheating. Who knows...
Reilly's book is well-written - there were some mistakes which I hope will get fixed in the final editions - and relatively short at 240 pages. Reilly talked to friends, caddies, business partners, fellow politicians about their experiences with Trump. I was exhausted by the time I finished the book. Tired from reading about a man, who, if he cheats and lies in the Presidency as he does in his sport of choice, we're in big trouble.
Reilly's book is well-written - there were some mistakes which I hope will get fixed in the final editions - and relatively short at 240 pages. Reilly talked to friends, caddies, business partners, fellow politicians about their experiences with Trump. I was exhausted by the time I finished the book. Tired from reading about a man, who, if he cheats and lies in the Presidency as he does in his sport of choice, we're in big trouble.
May 2, 2021
Funny read, learned a bit about golf.
Favorite quote:
"Final score on the "18 club championships": Lies 16, incomplete 2, Confirms 0. By this time, Trump's nose has grown so long he could putt with it""
Favorite quote:
"Final score on the "18 club championships": Lies 16, incomplete 2, Confirms 0. By this time, Trump's nose has grown so long he could putt with it""
July 29, 2020
As a lifelong golfer who despises Donald Trump, this book was so intriguing to me. Reading it didn’t give me any particularly new info, but rather more specific stories about him being a terrible human being, this time mostly confined to the course. It shows that he’s a cheater and liar who has so respect for anyone else. Golf is meant to be a sport where you act with integrity and honor, and as a person who holds himself to that standard it makes me angry and sad to read some of these stories. But it did teach me one thing, if I could get rules officials to follow Trump around and make sure he doesn’t cheat, I’d play him for $1000 a hole.
April 2, 2019
Trump Revealed Through Another Prism
Poor Rick Reilly. This is an exceptionally entertaining and well written book, with loads of fascinating tidbits about golf, golfing presidents, and everything that surrounds the game at the presidential level. There is, literally, an engaging fact, perceptive observation, joke, amusing story, or wry throwaway line on every page. But, it's unavoidable, given the premise here, that everything circles back to and focuses on Donald J. Trump. And I guess there is no way to avoid that, although I am happy to note that at least it's mostly the introductory chapter that is the biggest downer. After that Reilly focuses on the golf, even if it is Trump's version of golf.
Trump isn't a funny golfer, or a goofy golfer, or a supremely accomplished golfer, or a potentially fun or even interesting golf partner, (unless you're a bit of a masochist). Trump is a liar and an unrelenting cheat in a sport that values, above all else, honesty, courtesy and playing by the rules. Linger on that thought too long, and the stories here can be sad and depressing.
But then - well, gosh it can be funny. As the Borscht belt comics would say - "It's funny, because it's true". Trump is immersed in and obsessed with golf, (playing it, owning the courses, rubbing elbows with celebrity golfers), and all aspects of that obsession are considered and illuminated. Reilly dissects each of Trump's claimed Club Championships. He is merciless in describing Trump's "idiots abroad" approach to Scotland. He recounts innumerable stories about cheating, phony handicaps, and baseless and ludicrous claims by Trump about his skills, his courses, and his prowess. Reilly gives Trump props where appropriate, but always has to circle back to the fact, observed repeatedly, that Trump is constitutionally compelled to exaggerate that which is merely "good" into splendiforous magnificence, and is so convinced that everyone cheats at everything that cheating and winning at any cost is the real normal. Harmless enough, ultimately, on the golf course. But.
So, poor Rick Reilly. He has written a very good, thorough, and sometimes laugh out loud funny book. But, you know, Trump. Read it, and despair.
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
Poor Rick Reilly. This is an exceptionally entertaining and well written book, with loads of fascinating tidbits about golf, golfing presidents, and everything that surrounds the game at the presidential level. There is, literally, an engaging fact, perceptive observation, joke, amusing story, or wry throwaway line on every page. But, it's unavoidable, given the premise here, that everything circles back to and focuses on Donald J. Trump. And I guess there is no way to avoid that, although I am happy to note that at least it's mostly the introductory chapter that is the biggest downer. After that Reilly focuses on the golf, even if it is Trump's version of golf.
Trump isn't a funny golfer, or a goofy golfer, or a supremely accomplished golfer, or a potentially fun or even interesting golf partner, (unless you're a bit of a masochist). Trump is a liar and an unrelenting cheat in a sport that values, above all else, honesty, courtesy and playing by the rules. Linger on that thought too long, and the stories here can be sad and depressing.
But then - well, gosh it can be funny. As the Borscht belt comics would say - "It's funny, because it's true". Trump is immersed in and obsessed with golf, (playing it, owning the courses, rubbing elbows with celebrity golfers), and all aspects of that obsession are considered and illuminated. Reilly dissects each of Trump's claimed Club Championships. He is merciless in describing Trump's "idiots abroad" approach to Scotland. He recounts innumerable stories about cheating, phony handicaps, and baseless and ludicrous claims by Trump about his skills, his courses, and his prowess. Reilly gives Trump props where appropriate, but always has to circle back to the fact, observed repeatedly, that Trump is constitutionally compelled to exaggerate that which is merely "good" into splendiforous magnificence, and is so convinced that everyone cheats at everything that cheating and winning at any cost is the real normal. Harmless enough, ultimately, on the golf course. But.
So, poor Rick Reilly. He has written a very good, thorough, and sometimes laugh out loud funny book. But, you know, Trump. Read it, and despair.
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
June 9, 2019
Our current Commander in Chief, Donald Trump has a well-known passion for golf. He has gone golfing 183 times since his inauguration (according to ). Rick Reilly, award winning sports writer, is not particularly political. (I used to read his column in Sports Illustrated. The angriest I ever got with him was when he wrote about how much better football is than baseball.) But he is also a huge golf fan. And this is where he takes issue with Trump, and what has inspired the writing of this book.
For you see, Donald Trump has a terrible reputation for cheating at golf. Little things like taking “gimmes� on putts that are well over 3 feet , moving balls from unplayable lies to a more playable spot near the green, and the famous “Trump Bump� where he inflates (actually, deflates) his score to make himself look better and thus feel better are all tools in a massive cheating arsenal. I’m no golfer, but the methods that he reportedly uses to make him a winner every time are numerous and shocking.
Oh, I know where some of you are thinking. Some of you are saying “so what?� and some are saying “fake news.� Well. So be it. At this point you believe what you believe and nothing is going to change that.
The book is well sourced and lots of caddies and important people go on the record to paint the picture and support the argument that Donald Trump is a huge golf cheat. But Reilly digs deeper and examines the impact that golf has on his presidency. As Trump has refused to completely divest from his business interests during his term, there are numerous ways that are detailed in the book in how Trump is using the office to continue to rake in money at his resorts. And the game that he plays and the scores that he boasts (and he does love to boast!) are often fraudulent due to the massive cheating which Reilly details.
It’s a breezy book which I enjoyed bigly and tremendously. I read most of this between innings over the course of a week of watching baseball. The impassioned last chapter gets to the depth of how much Reilly loves the sport and how he believes Trump has been ruining it through class warfare. I can see why he found it necessary to tell this story. Great read.
For you see, Donald Trump has a terrible reputation for cheating at golf. Little things like taking “gimmes� on putts that are well over 3 feet , moving balls from unplayable lies to a more playable spot near the green, and the famous “Trump Bump� where he inflates (actually, deflates) his score to make himself look better and thus feel better are all tools in a massive cheating arsenal. I’m no golfer, but the methods that he reportedly uses to make him a winner every time are numerous and shocking.
Oh, I know where some of you are thinking. Some of you are saying “so what?� and some are saying “fake news.� Well. So be it. At this point you believe what you believe and nothing is going to change that.
The book is well sourced and lots of caddies and important people go on the record to paint the picture and support the argument that Donald Trump is a huge golf cheat. But Reilly digs deeper and examines the impact that golf has on his presidency. As Trump has refused to completely divest from his business interests during his term, there are numerous ways that are detailed in the book in how Trump is using the office to continue to rake in money at his resorts. And the game that he plays and the scores that he boasts (and he does love to boast!) are often fraudulent due to the massive cheating which Reilly details.
It’s a breezy book which I enjoyed bigly and tremendously. I read most of this between innings over the course of a week of watching baseball. The impassioned last chapter gets to the depth of how much Reilly loves the sport and how he believes Trump has been ruining it through class warfare. I can see why he found it necessary to tell this story. Great read.
April 16, 2019
If it only it were not so frightening, this book would be hilarious!
Reilly digs deep into the persona of Donald Trump, revealing his true character (or lack thereof). Trump's passion is golf. I think everyone knows that. But what kind of person would diminish his life's passion by constantly cheating, bragging, and lying? The author shows explicitly that that kind of person would be Trump.
The man is completely incapable of telling the truth. He lies about his score. He kicks the golf balls into a better space (or has his lackey do it for him). He lies about the championships he's won. He lies about everything.
You might think that the author is another member of the "fake news" group that Trump rails on, however he documents incident after incident, as told by upstanding members of society who have golfed with him. It's a running gag among golfers everywhere how bad Trump cheats and lies.
And if you can't believe anything he says about his passion, how can you think he is going to tell the truth about anything else? You would have to be completely gullible.
Someday, just like our parents warned us, the lies will catch up to you. And the day of reckoning will be painful. Evidently Trump's parents didn't impress that upon him. How he has made it this far is amazing (and frustrating). When that day comes, I just hope that he doesn't take us all down with him!
Reilly digs deep into the persona of Donald Trump, revealing his true character (or lack thereof). Trump's passion is golf. I think everyone knows that. But what kind of person would diminish his life's passion by constantly cheating, bragging, and lying? The author shows explicitly that that kind of person would be Trump.
The man is completely incapable of telling the truth. He lies about his score. He kicks the golf balls into a better space (or has his lackey do it for him). He lies about the championships he's won. He lies about everything.
You might think that the author is another member of the "fake news" group that Trump rails on, however he documents incident after incident, as told by upstanding members of society who have golfed with him. It's a running gag among golfers everywhere how bad Trump cheats and lies.
And if you can't believe anything he says about his passion, how can you think he is going to tell the truth about anything else? You would have to be completely gullible.
Someday, just like our parents warned us, the lies will catch up to you. And the day of reckoning will be painful. Evidently Trump's parents didn't impress that upon him. How he has made it this far is amazing (and frustrating). When that day comes, I just hope that he doesn't take us all down with him!
May 14, 2019
From someone with barely any understanding of golf, this was an interesting angle to analyze Trump’s unethical, narcissistic, and selfish character through the sport. The details probably won’t surprise anyone but still enough to consider what a ridiculous person he can be, well before becoming President. This was a fun, easy read to also learn about how the golf world and culture works, which is why Trump’s very being is a middle finger to it.
December 24, 2018
If you love golf and hate Trump, you will love this book. The author gives a multitude of corroborated accounts of Mr. Trump's world of golf in which he cheats, lies, and steals money from rich and poor alike.
The Donald plays golf regularly yet has only posted 20 scores in the past 7 years. The scores he has posted indicate a handicap of 3, yet most observers estimate him as having a 9 to 12 handicap. He always tees off first after which he and his caddy race down the course before the rest of the group tees off. According to his caddies "He wants you to throw it (his ball) out of the woods, kick it out of the rough, fluff his lie. We all deal with it." There are even stories of his moving an opponent's ball from the fairway to a bunker.
Trump brags that all his courses are the greatest in the world even though golf magazines don't even have them in the top one hundred. He boasts of his 50 million dollar investment and then whines that the tax assessor is overvaluing his property at 11 million. He sues governments in which he has golf courses because they won't tear down their "ugly" windmills (Scotland), or won't let him build a wall because of the rising ocean (Ireland). Quite ironic considering his climate change denials. And he's been known to under-pay his bills. One of his clubhouse architects tried to get the $141,000 he was owed, but had to settle for $25,000 because he was threatened with a lawsuit that could stretch on for years.
I could go on and on. Mr. Reilly has created a well written book that will boggle your mind in regards to the man we call our President.
Thanks to NetGalley for opportunity to read and review.
The Donald plays golf regularly yet has only posted 20 scores in the past 7 years. The scores he has posted indicate a handicap of 3, yet most observers estimate him as having a 9 to 12 handicap. He always tees off first after which he and his caddy race down the course before the rest of the group tees off. According to his caddies "He wants you to throw it (his ball) out of the woods, kick it out of the rough, fluff his lie. We all deal with it." There are even stories of his moving an opponent's ball from the fairway to a bunker.
Trump brags that all his courses are the greatest in the world even though golf magazines don't even have them in the top one hundred. He boasts of his 50 million dollar investment and then whines that the tax assessor is overvaluing his property at 11 million. He sues governments in which he has golf courses because they won't tear down their "ugly" windmills (Scotland), or won't let him build a wall because of the rising ocean (Ireland). Quite ironic considering his climate change denials. And he's been known to under-pay his bills. One of his clubhouse architects tried to get the $141,000 he was owed, but had to settle for $25,000 because he was threatened with a lawsuit that could stretch on for years.
I could go on and on. Mr. Reilly has created a well written book that will boggle your mind in regards to the man we call our President.
Thanks to NetGalley for opportunity to read and review.
July 9, 2019
Rick Reilly is a hilarious sportswriter, and Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump is a funny book, even though it’s hard to enjoy the humor because the subject matter—Donald Trump’s lying and cheating—is so pathetic and actually kind of frightening.
When it comes to golf, Donald Trump always cheats. He moves balls to play more favorably. He lies about his scores. He lies about his handicap. He lies about his accomplishments. These tendencies apply not only to Trump as a player but also as a golf course developer. He lies about his funding. He cheats his contractors. He lies about his courses� ratings. The sources for all of these stories of chicanery are mostly on the record, and those not on the record are sources who still have some connection to Trump, at least at the time of publication.
All of this, of course, is a microcosm for how Trump governs. He claims far more than he achieves. Integrity and empathy are foreign concepts to him, and the only thing that matters to him is that he can frame himself to himself as a winner. He doesn't fool many others though, on the golf course or in the White House.
When it comes to golf, Donald Trump always cheats. He moves balls to play more favorably. He lies about his scores. He lies about his handicap. He lies about his accomplishments. These tendencies apply not only to Trump as a player but also as a golf course developer. He lies about his funding. He cheats his contractors. He lies about his courses� ratings. The sources for all of these stories of chicanery are mostly on the record, and those not on the record are sources who still have some connection to Trump, at least at the time of publication.
All of this, of course, is a microcosm for how Trump governs. He claims far more than he achieves. Integrity and empathy are foreign concepts to him, and the only thing that matters to him is that he can frame himself to himself as a winner. He doesn't fool many others though, on the golf course or in the White House.
May 25, 2019
Over the past several years I’ve heard that Trump constantly cheated when he played golf & Rick Reilly confirmed those stories & many more. I started playing golf in 1944 at age 13 & have always had a great deal of respect for the game. It depresses me to know that a person of power & money constantly cheats at golf to feed his ego. I feel even more depressed & sadden to know that the President of our country does not have the character we rely on to put the country first & above personal desire & needs.
God help save our country.
God help save our country.
May 11, 2019
This book really helped me understand what we are dealing with given our current president. I sleep better at night with this new information. I certainly don't approve of him, but I better understand and will therefore no longer be surprised with his bad behavior.
October 29, 2021
About 20 years ago, I was wandering through Powell's City of Books in Portland on a Friday afternoon with a friend of mine. Both of us were trying to avoid heading back to where we belonged on a Friday afternoon--in the office--when I pulled a book of Woody Allen quotes--movie quotes, published quotes, quotes from his stand-up comedy act in the Catskills in the days before he became an actor, screenwriter, and director. My friend and I, both lawyers, stood there for over an hour just laughing at some of Allen's riducously funny statements, and by the time we finished laughing, it was well past quitting time. We declared the afternoon a success and headed for home.
This is how I felt reading Rick Reilly's assessment of Donald Trump's character, all filtered through his actions and conduct in buying, building, owning, managing golf courses and, of course, actually playing the game of golf. I laughed all the way through it, stopping to consider that Donald Trump cheats and lies all the time, without regard to subject matter, activity, or other people involved who might happen to know the truth. And then I became somber, realizing that Trump is President of the United States, directing foreign and domestic policy, engaging with other world and domestic leaders, having dinners with heads of State, and, unfortunately for us and our children, setting the example of how we should be courteous and behave with our best manners. That is a disaster.
Although I had never trusted anything Trump said, I hadn't really extended that to a distrust of anything and everything Trump actually did. But, the flaw in Trump's character is severe: he simply has no moral or ethical baseline, nothing in his spiritual bank that tells him that something is unfair, unjust, perhaps illegal, and should not be done. Trump is fearless when it comes to the consequences, holding a 'just let them try holding me accountable' attitude.
There is a paragraph in Reilly's book where it became absolutely clear to me that Trump has a psychotic inability to distinguish right from wrong, truth from lies, good deeds from bad, even good people (from his point of view) from bad people. Trump is wholly and totally without a baseline which establishes right from wrong. His cheating, lies, and illegalities are so open and egregious that I truly believe that if Trump were charged with a crime, he might be able to employ the insanity defense and just leave it to a jury to decide whether he was able to distinguish (know) right from wrong. There is nothing Trump will not lie or cheat about: Reilly tells the story of having dinner with Melania and a couple of club members, one of whom asked her, what her nationality was. Melania replied that she was Slovenian. Trump, according to someone who heard the conversation, leaned over to Melania and said to her, 'tell them you're from Austria. It sounds better.' Everything is worth a lie to Trump. Cheating to get ahead is simply a quick way to get ahead without having to endure the hardship of challenge.
It is the first rule of the Royal and Ancient to "play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if cannot do either, do what is fair." It is not only the single most important rule of the game but the most important rule governing a golfer's behaviour and character. It may be the most important rule of living the good life that Plato taught and Aristotle sought. While not a steady golfer myself, I have had that notion urged upon me my whole life--act on the situation you have to act on, but uniformly do what it is right, just, and fair. It will define you as a person, and you will be remembered this way. Serious golfers have told me--Reilly repeats it--that if a person cheats in how he plays golf, actually cheats on his friends and foursome, he will cheat in life. I have never found it to be otherwise, personally.
Reilly states that Trump is a passing, good golfer and why he lies is not beyond Reilly's ken, something Reilly cannot understand unless Trump's sole goal in life is to be declared the winner or declare himself the winner. He must be perceived by all to be the best in everything he does even if direct observations countering what Trump wants us to believe. But, Trump even lies about this, requiring him to (pardon sought from all the trial lawyers) counter-lie. Here are examples Reilly cites:
1. He claims to have a 2.8 handicap, but those who play with him and the official tracker put his handicap at somewhere between 10 and 15 but to counter the evidence he creates a plaque showing him as "club champion" or lowest handicap, or something like that.
2. He kicks or throws the ball out of the rough, instead of hitting it out.
3. He takes 'gimme' putts on almost every hole he plays whether the ball lay within the threshold number of feet (6 or 10).
4. He gives himself a par when he is known to have exceeded par by 4-12 strokes.
5. He has architects design his golf courses and then refuses to allow the architect to claim credit, calling it a Trump course instead.
6. He claims publicly to have received more environmental awards for his courses than anyone else. He has not received a single environmental award.
7. How he built Balmenie in Scotland is the stuff of legends. He swindled, he lied, he went to war with property owners whose family deeds were so old they could have been encased in the British or Scottish royal museums. As Reilly points out, "In Scotland, Donald Trump is less popular than tipping" and yet he makes the claim that the Scots love him. No Scot loved or loves Donald Trump. It is the rare Scot who does not hold him in contempt. He even bulldozed the Dunes around Balmedie, an offense inflammatory to the Scots.
8. He drives his golf cart on greens, he plays past groups ahead of him without excusing himself or asking permission.
9. In what may be offensive to everyone in America, except Trump, he erected a monument dedicated to those who died in a fictitious Civil War battle on his Washington course. He erected a monument that reads: "The River of Blood. Many great American soldiers, both of the North and the South, died on this spot, "The Rapids", on the Potomac River. The casualties were so great that the water would turn red and thus became known as "The River of Blood." It is my great honor to have preserved this important section of the Potomac River."
The whole thing is a lie, a fiction, made up by Trump, including preserving any portion of the Potomac for any reason. When asked about it, Trump replied: "How would they know. Were they there."
10. When they are pressed into conversations, or put in a good mood, caddies employed by Trump will attest not only to his uninterrupted cheating, but his bad manners, foul moods, and disrespect for others.
11. He stiffs his vendors, all his vendors, who worked on his courses, except those who stood up to him. As one vendor told Reilly, his father told him all about bullies and you have to take a punch even if you get beat up by the bully, because the next time, he'll leave you alone (pages 163-64). I related well to this advice, because a couple of times in school, I had to stand up to bullies who were testing me, and I never took it. The fights occur in public and everyone who sees it gets the word around not to fuck with you. It really is worth the licking you might take, although in my case I took the fight right to the point where the bully just stopped fighting. Good enough.
Reilly's examples of Trump's arrogance, cheating, and lies fill this wonderful, funny book. At the end of the book, he recounts a wonderful story about his father, a US Army lieutenant stationed in Japan at the conclusion of hostilities. Reilly recounts how his father heard that Hirohito played golf, so he walked up to the gates of the Imperial Palace and invited Hirohito to play golf with Reilly's dad because his dad knew that a game of golf brings peace, laughter, and joy to all who play it.
Reilly just loves golf, and he wrote this book because Trump, besides disrespecting everyone in America, disrespects and brings into disrepute the beauty of the game by the way he cheats at it, violating the Royal and Ancient's 'play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if you cannot do either, do what is fair.' That was the guiding light of the shepherds in Scotland who created the game and is a standard all honest and worthy people in their dealings abide by every day. Sadly, Donald Trump follows not in the footsteps of those honorable gamesmen.
This is how I felt reading Rick Reilly's assessment of Donald Trump's character, all filtered through his actions and conduct in buying, building, owning, managing golf courses and, of course, actually playing the game of golf. I laughed all the way through it, stopping to consider that Donald Trump cheats and lies all the time, without regard to subject matter, activity, or other people involved who might happen to know the truth. And then I became somber, realizing that Trump is President of the United States, directing foreign and domestic policy, engaging with other world and domestic leaders, having dinners with heads of State, and, unfortunately for us and our children, setting the example of how we should be courteous and behave with our best manners. That is a disaster.
Although I had never trusted anything Trump said, I hadn't really extended that to a distrust of anything and everything Trump actually did. But, the flaw in Trump's character is severe: he simply has no moral or ethical baseline, nothing in his spiritual bank that tells him that something is unfair, unjust, perhaps illegal, and should not be done. Trump is fearless when it comes to the consequences, holding a 'just let them try holding me accountable' attitude.
There is a paragraph in Reilly's book where it became absolutely clear to me that Trump has a psychotic inability to distinguish right from wrong, truth from lies, good deeds from bad, even good people (from his point of view) from bad people. Trump is wholly and totally without a baseline which establishes right from wrong. His cheating, lies, and illegalities are so open and egregious that I truly believe that if Trump were charged with a crime, he might be able to employ the insanity defense and just leave it to a jury to decide whether he was able to distinguish (know) right from wrong. There is nothing Trump will not lie or cheat about: Reilly tells the story of having dinner with Melania and a couple of club members, one of whom asked her, what her nationality was. Melania replied that she was Slovenian. Trump, according to someone who heard the conversation, leaned over to Melania and said to her, 'tell them you're from Austria. It sounds better.' Everything is worth a lie to Trump. Cheating to get ahead is simply a quick way to get ahead without having to endure the hardship of challenge.
It is the first rule of the Royal and Ancient to "play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if cannot do either, do what is fair." It is not only the single most important rule of the game but the most important rule governing a golfer's behaviour and character. It may be the most important rule of living the good life that Plato taught and Aristotle sought. While not a steady golfer myself, I have had that notion urged upon me my whole life--act on the situation you have to act on, but uniformly do what it is right, just, and fair. It will define you as a person, and you will be remembered this way. Serious golfers have told me--Reilly repeats it--that if a person cheats in how he plays golf, actually cheats on his friends and foursome, he will cheat in life. I have never found it to be otherwise, personally.
Reilly states that Trump is a passing, good golfer and why he lies is not beyond Reilly's ken, something Reilly cannot understand unless Trump's sole goal in life is to be declared the winner or declare himself the winner. He must be perceived by all to be the best in everything he does even if direct observations countering what Trump wants us to believe. But, Trump even lies about this, requiring him to (pardon sought from all the trial lawyers) counter-lie. Here are examples Reilly cites:
1. He claims to have a 2.8 handicap, but those who play with him and the official tracker put his handicap at somewhere between 10 and 15 but to counter the evidence he creates a plaque showing him as "club champion" or lowest handicap, or something like that.
2. He kicks or throws the ball out of the rough, instead of hitting it out.
3. He takes 'gimme' putts on almost every hole he plays whether the ball lay within the threshold number of feet (6 or 10).
4. He gives himself a par when he is known to have exceeded par by 4-12 strokes.
5. He has architects design his golf courses and then refuses to allow the architect to claim credit, calling it a Trump course instead.
6. He claims publicly to have received more environmental awards for his courses than anyone else. He has not received a single environmental award.
7. How he built Balmenie in Scotland is the stuff of legends. He swindled, he lied, he went to war with property owners whose family deeds were so old they could have been encased in the British or Scottish royal museums. As Reilly points out, "In Scotland, Donald Trump is less popular than tipping" and yet he makes the claim that the Scots love him. No Scot loved or loves Donald Trump. It is the rare Scot who does not hold him in contempt. He even bulldozed the Dunes around Balmedie, an offense inflammatory to the Scots.
8. He drives his golf cart on greens, he plays past groups ahead of him without excusing himself or asking permission.
9. In what may be offensive to everyone in America, except Trump, he erected a monument dedicated to those who died in a fictitious Civil War battle on his Washington course. He erected a monument that reads: "The River of Blood. Many great American soldiers, both of the North and the South, died on this spot, "The Rapids", on the Potomac River. The casualties were so great that the water would turn red and thus became known as "The River of Blood." It is my great honor to have preserved this important section of the Potomac River."
The whole thing is a lie, a fiction, made up by Trump, including preserving any portion of the Potomac for any reason. When asked about it, Trump replied: "How would they know. Were they there."
10. When they are pressed into conversations, or put in a good mood, caddies employed by Trump will attest not only to his uninterrupted cheating, but his bad manners, foul moods, and disrespect for others.
11. He stiffs his vendors, all his vendors, who worked on his courses, except those who stood up to him. As one vendor told Reilly, his father told him all about bullies and you have to take a punch even if you get beat up by the bully, because the next time, he'll leave you alone (pages 163-64). I related well to this advice, because a couple of times in school, I had to stand up to bullies who were testing me, and I never took it. The fights occur in public and everyone who sees it gets the word around not to fuck with you. It really is worth the licking you might take, although in my case I took the fight right to the point where the bully just stopped fighting. Good enough.
Reilly's examples of Trump's arrogance, cheating, and lies fill this wonderful, funny book. At the end of the book, he recounts a wonderful story about his father, a US Army lieutenant stationed in Japan at the conclusion of hostilities. Reilly recounts how his father heard that Hirohito played golf, so he walked up to the gates of the Imperial Palace and invited Hirohito to play golf with Reilly's dad because his dad knew that a game of golf brings peace, laughter, and joy to all who play it.
Reilly just loves golf, and he wrote this book because Trump, besides disrespecting everyone in America, disrespects and brings into disrepute the beauty of the game by the way he cheats at it, violating the Royal and Ancient's 'play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if you cannot do either, do what is fair.' That was the guiding light of the shepherds in Scotland who created the game and is a standard all honest and worthy people in their dealings abide by every day. Sadly, Donald Trump follows not in the footsteps of those honorable gamesmen.
April 13, 2024
Nearly a 4-star rating. It just appealed, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. I am not a golfer, but I have been to some truly great courses, as a friend of a visitor/player; Pebble Beach is amazingly beautiful, as well as windy/chilly, even in July!
This week I came across mention of this newish book by a well-known golf journalist (not his first book), and absolutely fell into it last night. Shortened my sleep. It’s better-written/edited than I expected, a quick read, and even for a non-golfer it made a lot of sense.
In short, T45 cheats at golf, possibly more often in a round than he sets foot out of the cart. He cheats on memberships, on vendors, suppliers, employees. He tries to deny losing even a $20-50 bet.
T45 is said to have made groundskeepers alter sandtraps and other elements of some holes from one day's play to the next during the 2017 Ladies PGA tournament, played on his course. Why? Because he was insulted that so many got great scores, and he wanted to make his course more important through being more difficult. The same course, the next day, the players' scores were 2-4 strokes higher on some of the same holes.
Yeah, T45 cheats at golf. In big and small ways. He’s dragged the Secret Service into the cheating - they kick or drop the balls out of the rough for him. T45 has kicked other players� balls into the sandtraps. He’s claimed their excellent shots onto the green as his own and then claimed the short putts. It just goes on and on. He's actually a fairly-decent golfer, with a handicap in the 10-12 range.
One of the financial bits that is useful to know is the rule that if people join private golf clubs, their $$-$$$ initiation fees are not refundable if they wish to leave the club; in most cases, they have to wait until someone else comes along to join. The membership is not transferable, not inheritable. T45 seems to have quadrupled down on this, requiring 3-4 new members to join before the retiring one can get his/her (usually his) money back. One of the ideas that the author of this book offers is that these fees, from the first 2-3 clubs T45 bought may have been a large source of funding for the rest of the courses he bought all in a short time.
Anyway, fun reading, available for me via OverDrive at my local library.
This week I came across mention of this newish book by a well-known golf journalist (not his first book), and absolutely fell into it last night. Shortened my sleep. It’s better-written/edited than I expected, a quick read, and even for a non-golfer it made a lot of sense.
In short, T45 cheats at golf, possibly more often in a round than he sets foot out of the cart. He cheats on memberships, on vendors, suppliers, employees. He tries to deny losing even a $20-50 bet.
T45 is said to have made groundskeepers alter sandtraps and other elements of some holes from one day's play to the next during the 2017 Ladies PGA tournament, played on his course. Why? Because he was insulted that so many got great scores, and he wanted to make his course more important through being more difficult. The same course, the next day, the players' scores were 2-4 strokes higher on some of the same holes.
Yeah, T45 cheats at golf. In big and small ways. He’s dragged the Secret Service into the cheating - they kick or drop the balls out of the rough for him. T45 has kicked other players� balls into the sandtraps. He’s claimed their excellent shots onto the green as his own and then claimed the short putts. It just goes on and on. He's actually a fairly-decent golfer, with a handicap in the 10-12 range.
One of the financial bits that is useful to know is the rule that if people join private golf clubs, their $$-$$$ initiation fees are not refundable if they wish to leave the club; in most cases, they have to wait until someone else comes along to join. The membership is not transferable, not inheritable. T45 seems to have quadrupled down on this, requiring 3-4 new members to join before the retiring one can get his/her (usually his) money back. One of the ideas that the author of this book offers is that these fees, from the first 2-3 clubs T45 bought may have been a large source of funding for the rest of the courses he bought all in a short time.
Anyway, fun reading, available for me via OverDrive at my local library.
June 6, 2019
Trump cheats...stop the presses, I know. He cheats. He lies. But Reilly has taken a small lens to observe the man...and it works amazingly well. Golf.
Remember the promise to never leave the WH, to never golf? Lies. He's spent 1/3 of his administration at HIS OWN golf courses. His own. He is making money at our expense.
But getting back to the cheating. Every golf partner seems to know, going in, The Donald will win. He tees off first, he has his golf cart set to go faster than any one else's cart. So, he hits the ball, jumps into his souped-up cart and always finds his ball in the middle of the fairway. He never puts out...he picks up his ball and calls it good. And yet, he seems to be an enjoyable partner...he's charming. He's funny, he's totally focused on whoever is golfing with him. But he wins. He makes sure, his caddy makes sure, his partners make sure.
Petty, maybe. But golfers pride themselves on their own integrity. Some of them.
Reilly's book talks, too, about Trump's zealous drive to own golf courses, to brand them "TRUMP", to buy low and fix 'em up. To badger and underpay and refuse to pay honest designers and craftspersons. Trump cheats. Trump lies. Trump sues. Trump bullies. Trump womanizes.
The most horrifying part of the book is right at the end, as Reilly painstakingly connects Trump's foreign policy decisions to his golf-course self-interests.
Puerto Rico -- Immigration and Muslim bans on SOME countries and not OTHERS -- China -- Indonesia -- undocumented foreign workers --Cuba -- Ireland. He is manipulating the entire F-ing world to enrich himself and make playing golf all over the world easier.
He keeps goats on Bedminster so he can claim an $80,000 tax break...as we the taxpayers pay HIM $4M every time he visits a golf course in Florida.
"So, when a man like President Donald Trump pees all over the game I love, lies about it, cheats at it, and literally drives tire tracks all over it, it digs a divot in my soul..."
BTW -- as I write this review, #IndividualOne is in Ireland...at his own club, after renting limos from a funeral parlor for $4M, playing golf. He lies. He cheats. And he does not care if we know it.
Remember the promise to never leave the WH, to never golf? Lies. He's spent 1/3 of his administration at HIS OWN golf courses. His own. He is making money at our expense.
But getting back to the cheating. Every golf partner seems to know, going in, The Donald will win. He tees off first, he has his golf cart set to go faster than any one else's cart. So, he hits the ball, jumps into his souped-up cart and always finds his ball in the middle of the fairway. He never puts out...he picks up his ball and calls it good. And yet, he seems to be an enjoyable partner...he's charming. He's funny, he's totally focused on whoever is golfing with him. But he wins. He makes sure, his caddy makes sure, his partners make sure.
Petty, maybe. But golfers pride themselves on their own integrity. Some of them.
Reilly's book talks, too, about Trump's zealous drive to own golf courses, to brand them "TRUMP", to buy low and fix 'em up. To badger and underpay and refuse to pay honest designers and craftspersons. Trump cheats. Trump lies. Trump sues. Trump bullies. Trump womanizes.
The most horrifying part of the book is right at the end, as Reilly painstakingly connects Trump's foreign policy decisions to his golf-course self-interests.
Puerto Rico -- Immigration and Muslim bans on SOME countries and not OTHERS -- China -- Indonesia -- undocumented foreign workers --Cuba -- Ireland. He is manipulating the entire F-ing world to enrich himself and make playing golf all over the world easier.
He keeps goats on Bedminster so he can claim an $80,000 tax break...as we the taxpayers pay HIM $4M every time he visits a golf course in Florida.
"So, when a man like President Donald Trump pees all over the game I love, lies about it, cheats at it, and literally drives tire tracks all over it, it digs a divot in my soul..."
BTW -- as I write this review, #IndividualOne is in Ireland...at his own club, after renting limos from a funeral parlor for $4M, playing golf. He lies. He cheats. And he does not care if we know it.
July 30, 2019
In golf, you are your own referee and you are bound by the honor system to play by the rules. Watch someone play golf and you can learn a lot about that person. Play golf with Trump and you will learn that he is a greasy, despicable liar and flagrant cheater who thinks the rules don’t apply to him. But you already knew that. The book tells story after story of Trump not just cheating at golf but cheating at golf course construction, golf memberships, golf carts, golf clubs and golf clubhouse decorations. And once you’ve spent your entire adult life lying and cheating your way across a golf course, it’s only natural to lie and cheat about everything else. Rick Reilly’s subhead says it all: “How Golf Explains Trump.�
If you love golf and hate Trump, you’ll love this book. If you hate golf and hate Trump, you’ll like this book. If you don’t understand golf and you dislike Trump, you’ll learn a lot from this book. If you’re ambivalent about golf but you love Trump, then this book will make you even more confused and defensive than you already are.
If you love golf and hate Trump, you’ll love this book. If you hate golf and hate Trump, you’ll like this book. If you don’t understand golf and you dislike Trump, you’ll learn a lot from this book. If you’re ambivalent about golf but you love Trump, then this book will make you even more confused and defensive than you already are.
March 20, 2025
It’s a 4.5. I’ve always been adjacent to the sport of golf, as the first man in many generations of my family not to play it. Immediate family members swing at esteemed places like Winged Foot (DJT is a member). Trump fills endless news cycles, so why not dig into the low-life shit he does both in his golf games and his golf business dealings? I loathe the man, and this gave me all the more reason to—and some opportunity to learn more about a pastime I have mixed feelings towards. Book is a little boomer-y at points, but comes off direct, well-written, and engaging. Read in a single day on a whim. Recommended if you love golf and/or dislike 45-47
June 30, 2024
I don’t get golf. I don’t even like it. But this book was hilarious and explained so much from a totally different lens.
Super fast political/sports read, kind of a sweet spot cross over for me.
Super fast political/sports read, kind of a sweet spot cross over for me.
October 19, 2021
4.5 rounding up because its been a long time since I truly laughed out loud! Not a golfer, tried this because I saw a friend liked it, would never have touched this, but alas his entire persona has been laid bare on the green, which of course he drove over!
June 16, 2019
Rick Reilly and I definitely mind-melded on this one. I've been golfing most of my life, and, like Reilly, I have a deep respect for the game. Golf truly reflects the golfer: of course you have to practice your ass off if you want to lower your score, but your performance is in large part an extension of your mental state. Even if I'm golfing with others, it's really just me playing against myself. Anger and anxiety are useless, and you have to conquer all of the thoughts in your head to focus if you want to play your best. To me, cheating at golf is like cheating at therapy. You're throwing away money when you could be having a deep, emotional experience. Now, I know plenty of people who will pick up a putt or take a couple mulligans during a round, but the behavior of the titular character amounts to a desecration of the game. And to what end? Boasting a handicap you didn’t earn? A meaningless, falsified club championship title? That view of golf just does not compute with me.
I’ve focused on a small but important part of the book so far, but the rest is full of anecdotes, highly entertaining presidential golf history, as well as well-researched and compelling commentary. I HIGHLY recommend the audiobook read by the author. The passion, incredulity, and sarcasm come through so much more clearly than they ever could on the printed page.
I doubt the author will ever read this review, but I have to say it: thank you Rick - your words about your father teaching you about life through golf were perfect. My father passed a love of golf to me the same way yours did to you, and it feels good to know that there are still people out there with a true respect for the game and everything it can teach us.
I’ve focused on a small but important part of the book so far, but the rest is full of anecdotes, highly entertaining presidential golf history, as well as well-researched and compelling commentary. I HIGHLY recommend the audiobook read by the author. The passion, incredulity, and sarcasm come through so much more clearly than they ever could on the printed page.
I doubt the author will ever read this review, but I have to say it: thank you Rick - your words about your father teaching you about life through golf were perfect. My father passed a love of golf to me the same way yours did to you, and it feels good to know that there are still people out there with a true respect for the game and everything it can teach us.
May 23, 2019
Let's start out with this: If you like Donald Trump and are easily offended by jabs against him, then I would recommend you stay away from this book. This isn't an SNL-type essay about Trump, but a book highlighting how his antics on the golf course characterize the type of person he really is.
Rick Reilly is a respected sports journalist who for the most part keeps politics out of the book and sticks mainly to facts/interviews/sports when discussing the president's golf game. He goes into great detail about how Trump cheats at his golf game and how he is so adamant to win at all costs, even over the most trivial things. Through Reilly's wit, Rick describes how Trump's love affair with golf plays into how he manages his emotions, his business deals and his life in general...giving you a look at the real Donald J. Trump.
This is a thoughtful and funny book, especially if you listen to the audio version narrated by Reilly who has a humorous impression for Trump. Enjoy this light-hearted read and gain a greater appreciation for golf, as Reilly tries to preserve the integrity of the sport which the president routinely tries to destroy.
Rick Reilly is a respected sports journalist who for the most part keeps politics out of the book and sticks mainly to facts/interviews/sports when discussing the president's golf game. He goes into great detail about how Trump cheats at his golf game and how he is so adamant to win at all costs, even over the most trivial things. Through Reilly's wit, Rick describes how Trump's love affair with golf plays into how he manages his emotions, his business deals and his life in general...giving you a look at the real Donald J. Trump.
This is a thoughtful and funny book, especially if you listen to the audio version narrated by Reilly who has a humorous impression for Trump. Enjoy this light-hearted read and gain a greater appreciation for golf, as Reilly tries to preserve the integrity of the sport which the president routinely tries to destroy.
April 6, 2019
Funny but oh so sad. One of the best descriptions of the man and his ethics, or lack of ethics with focus on his golf antics. The man is the Rodney Dangerfield of Golf and is not just a master BS artiste but the consummate fraudster, liar, fake and insincere person ever to play golf. I wont spoil this biut his golf crimes are beyond insane, one has to laugh out loud at how absurd he is and how people bow to his supposed fortune and bend at his lawyers powers. The man breaks all the rules and gets away with it. This is what happens when you raise a nation on the false assumption that it is OK to fake it until you make it. This mantra has crippled America and created a nation of cheats and lairs to the point where they believe anything and even elect a malignant narcissistic psychotic bi-polar maniac as its President. Must read, fun but sad. A comedy that is well written and easy/fast top read. One of my top 10 Trump books!
April 11, 2019
I'll start with the last line of the book - a quote from Rick Reilly that he has heard but does not now who deserves attribution. "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act". And so it is. My husband and I listened to Mr. Reilly read this book on Libro.fm and thoroughly enjoyed it although we were also dismayed by much of it. Laugh out loud funny in parts and terrifyingly true in others, it reinforces the adage that golf is an honorable sport. Watch how a man plays golf and you will know the man. A man that will cheat and lie about the small things in life that don't really matter in the larger scheme of things, has no problem continuing this behavior when it matters. A must read for golfers, because it is about the game of golf and where it is headed. Excellent.
June 8, 2019
Arnold Palmer insisted on playing a round of golf with anyone he was considering entering into a business relationship with BEFORE signing any papers. Too bad the citizenry of the U.S. didn't do that before the 2016 election.
And the way he plays golf, is the way he actually treats his present office and the citizens. Anything so he wins.
Reilly wrote an easily understandable book, especially for one who, like me, does not know the game of golf. He has a way with words phrases. (You ask, "Does Trump employ illegal immigrants at his golf courses?" I answer, "Did Liz Taylor own a wedding dress?")
I enjoyed it and was horrified at the same time and I've already read too much about the Commander in Cheat.
And the way he plays golf, is the way he actually treats his present office and the citizens. Anything so he wins.
Reilly wrote an easily understandable book, especially for one who, like me, does not know the game of golf. He has a way with words phrases. (You ask, "Does Trump employ illegal immigrants at his golf courses?" I answer, "Did Liz Taylor own a wedding dress?")
I enjoyed it and was horrified at the same time and I've already read too much about the Commander in Cheat.
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