"Commander in Cheat": notorious golf cheater
When Donald Trump cribbed his "fraud at polls" claim for the November 2020 presidential election straight from his #1 favorite movie, Citizen Kane, this followed a long history of shameless cheating at his favorite game, golf.
Trump claimed to have won 18 championships in golf tournaments,1 but in several of those avowed wins he was the only contestant,2 and in one he never even played.3 These claimed wins also include one in 1999 at a Florida golf club that wasn't even open yet that year,4 and another in 2001 at a New York club that wasn't yet open then.5 These were reminiscent of prizes won by a prior vain rule with mediocre capabilities, the Roman emperor Nero, some in singing contests in which he didn't even compete, and another in a chariot race in which he never made it to the finish line.6
As sportswriter Rick Reilly summarized, "Final score on Trump's '18 club championships': Lies 16, Incompletes 2, Confirmed 0.7
- Vox, "How golf explains Trump. Seriously.," May 10, 2019, https://www.vox.com/2019/5/10/18524172/donald-trump-commander-in-cheat-rick-reilly; Golf.Com, "President Trump won a 2018 club championship—without actually playing in it!," March 11, 2019, https://golf.com/lifestyle/celebrities/president-trump-club-championship-did-not-enter/.
- Vox, May 10, 2019, op. cit.
- Golf.Com, March 11, 2019, op. cit.
- The Guardian, "Commander in cheat? Donald Trump's 18 golf tournament wins examined (excerpt from Rick Reilly, Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, 2019)," April 2, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/apr/02/donald-trump-golf-28-club-championships.
- Ibid.
- Edward Champlin, Nero (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Harvard University, 2003), pp. 54-55, 59, 61.
- The Guardian, April 2, 2019, op. cit.
