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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   37246 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 22, 2024

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Normalizing Donald Trump.

I just watched this video in which golfer Bryson DeChambeau plays best ball with Donald Trump to see if they can shoot under 50 on the short tees in an 18 hole golf course.

First of all, for those people who think Donald Trump sucks at golf, you're wrong and you have TDS. He's an extremely good golfer. Actually, ridiculously good. Multiple times, the duo used his shot over Bryson's. Combined, they shot 22 under par. Even if you think he's literally Hitler, he's extremely good at golf. If you don't think so, it might be worthwhile to examine why you think that. Watch the video and update your priors.

But the bigger CW angle is how a mainstream celebrity (Bryson is maybe the biggest golf player today) played a round with Donald, gave him a lot of respect, and just treated him as a normal, chill dude. And Donald reciprocated in kind. Bryson isn't overtly political and he said he'd be happy to play with Biden (lol) too.

https://x.com/b_dechambeau/status/1815447305467970034

There has been a massive effort to delegitimize Trump as a candidate, to make voting for him beyond the pale even if you mostly agree with his platform. But videos like this completely obliterate those efforts. He becomes human. Maybe if you have 12 piercings and purple hair Trump would seem unappealing in this video. But to a normal person, he just seems like a decent hang who is remarkably, extraordinarily good at golf.

The stigma is no longer there. People are coming out of the closet. And I think when it comes down to it, Trump is just way cooler than Kamala, even if he's old. It's said that the more charismatic candidate always wins. In 2020, there were some unique circumstances that made this not true. But if the Democrats cannot maintain the cordon sanitaire around Trump, it's over. He's just too likeable.

During the debate the one thing Biden said that tilted Trump was Biden lying about his golfing ability. Trump was yelling into a muted microphone with responses to that one.

Trump takes golf and golfing ability seriously.

Hey, to be fair the reason why I assumed Trump wasn't very good at golf isn't because I have TDS. I don't. It's just that he's a pretty old, out-of-shape man who is busy with a lot of other things besides playing golf. But then, I don't know much about golf and how age affects skill.

It is an interesting video. On the one hand, it does humanize Trump a bit, shows you a side of him that isn't the showman-entertainer-populist Trump of his rallies.

On the other hand, you can really see his age in the video. I think part of it is the natural lighting and the lack of his usual bronzer or whatever it is that gives him the "orange" look. He does look more affable than usual in this video, but he also looks older than usual, full grandpa mode. Which might not be good for him given that he is now running against Harris.

The famous failed assassination photos and videos are, of course, probably his best look ever from a pure PR perspective.

It should be noted that Bryson is probably the most disliked pro golfer who hasn't actually cheated. A few years ago the PGA Tour had to announce that people who made fun of him on the course would be ejected, and his flip to the LIV Tour has effectively made him persona non grata among serious golf fans.

I am, admittedly, not a golf fan. My only ever interest was when Tiger was dominating because I almost always consider dominant stretches in athletics interesting. Also, Tiger's Sunday Red Shirt shtick was genius and I personally adopted it for major presentations and exams, and IMO it works in the placebo-like way that all such things do, its a sort of self hypnotism via attire.

But, the LIV golf non-traversy was exactly that. The PGA clearly was incompetent and was forced into a new business model swiftly when their monopoly was blown up.

I think this is overstated. DeChambeau isn't really hated, his detractors think he's just more of an annoying kinda weird dude. Mickelson gets more ire, as do the LIV golfers who have generally failed to impress since the move. And of course your wording absolves Patrick Reed from consideration.

Also winning another major does big things for you. Both Koepka and DeChambeau seem fairly well-esteemed to me at the moment, just from idly browsing /r/golf.

Mickelson gets more ire

I havent kept up with golf since my grandfather passed away; what happened with Mickelson?

Partly it has to do with what /u/Rov_Scam pointed out, but I don't think that's the heart of it. Mickelson had long been a fan favourite, the second biggest golfer of the Tiger years, and was playing decently well into his 50s... even won his sixth major in 2021. So for him to jump ship from the tour that had made him a big star felt like a betrayal for people. Especially considering the money involved for his depreciating talent. It's one thing for an up-and-comer to take the big payout; sports careers are unpredictable, you could get a career-ending injury at any time, and lots of golfers simply lose their mojo for no explicable reason. He was also a big instigator of the scheme (he needed to be: big gambling debts!). For a fading older golfer to schism the world of pro golf for his own benefit after decades of being well-loved by the fans and by the prize purses... yeah, people didn't like it.

edit: The other thing to consider is that LIV as a product is just bad. This might all be forgiven if it were equal to or an improvement to the PGA tour in entertainment. It's not. All the changes that have been made to the format (teams, 54 holes, shotgun starts, music, etc.) have made it at various times annoying, crude, stupid, and boring. The talent is there but the players are not competitive. And the viewership as a result is practically non-existent. It exists only as long as the Saudis keep feeling happy about pouring billions of dollars into it per year.

I'll preface this by saying that I've disliked Mickelson since long before it was fashionable. His 2004 Masters win was a nice story but his 'aw shucks public image started to grate on me after that. I remember once in an interview some golfer was asked if everyone on the tour hated Tiger for winning so much and he said that Tiger was actually one of the most respected golfers on the tour and the superstar everyone hated was Mickelson. I also thought it was classless when he injured himself practicing for the 2007 US Open at Oakmont and bitched at the grounds crew for making the rough too thick. I mean, it's a tournament that's known for being exceptionally difficult, hosted by one of golf's most intimidating venues, and he thinks they should have eased up? What was he expecting? Anyway, after jumping to LIV his biographer asked him how he could take Saudi money despite their horrible record on human rights and he responded:

They’re scary motherfuckers to get involved with. They killed Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates."

In other words, I know they're bad, but they wrote me a big enough check that I'm willing to look past it. After the quote was made public he publicly apologized... to LIV golf management out of concern over the perception that his comments about the Saudis were directed at them personally. He then doubled down on the "golf needs change" rhetoric, which comes off as a bit rich from a guy who's gambled away more than most of his fans will ever earn in their lifetimes.

quote

TIL I like Phil Mickelson. That's how I've always fantasized I'd answer a question like that.

"How do you feel about accepting money for $PROJECT from known ism-ist-ophobes? Will you disavow??"

"Well at the time I felt good about it, but now that you're asking, I suppose I'd have to admit that I feel absolutely great about it. Simply thrilled, really. In fact, I think I'll fly back next Friday to have dinner with them and take some photos together for my professional homepage. I'll buy you a plane ticket so you can join me, they love journalists."

I'd have to work on something spicier but you get the gist.

I also found Trump's interview with Logan Paul quite humanizing and worth a watch. It made him look normal and sane compared to his usual public behavior. Granted, these are both very low stakes situations, but he rarely shows or grants access the normal side of himself. Perhaps his campaign is trying to clinch moderates. His brash, equivocal, and uncompromising rhetoric was often touted as his genius. Was he serious, or literal? Who cares? Hes Trump! But I think his base can still count on that, so his rhetorical style has been normalized.

One thing I never understood about TDS is how little attention is paid to the other side of the coin. In answer to a question nobody asked is a paragraph pointing out Trump's golfing bonafides, admonishing all who doubt as deranged. Trump is the most fervently worshiped US politician in my lifetime; the only political lifestyle brand I've ever known. He'll call your wife is ugly to your face, and then you'll stump for Trump as expected. With how little this even gets noticed anymore, I think TDS has become normalized.

It really is amazing how much, in American political psychology, the last 9 years have been The Age of Trump. It's not that America's actual political policies have been dominated by Trump - I think for the most part, if you had no idea that Trump existed and just looked at what the American government does in terms of policy, you could easily believe that the last few Presidents have all been normal establishment types. But his presence in politics on an attention-dominating and psychological level has been massive. I don't know who the last American political figure was who had such a hold on the public mind both in terms of attracting love and hate. Bush was widely hated but was never loved in a Trump-like way except maybe briefly after 9/11. Obama was widely loved but most of the really emotional "hope and change" fervor that helped him win in 2008 went away when even his supporters saw that for the most part, he was a standard politician.

There's this comedian Rachel Feinstein who really nailed something I've noticed over the past few years. In maybe 2021 or 2022, she posted a clip where she was complaining about her extremely liberal mother who is constantly ranting about Trump and how wretched he is. "She'll be like 'you know, he's not my President' - like yeah mom, he literally isn't!" It's a trend I've noticed: during his administration, people got so into the habit of ranting about how much they hated Trump and how awful he was, that they kept doing so several years after he'd been out of office, reduced to the status of a private citizen, an ordinary rich guy with no political power to speak of (and not even particularly rich when compared to Bezos, Musk etc.). When I pointed this out to them, they would get very offended and meekly offer the half-hearted rationalisation "well he's going to run for a second term so we have to keep the pressure on" or something to that effect. I really can't think of any historic precedent for this: the second Obama was out of office, Republicans largely stopped complaining about him (aside from the occasional joke about "Michael" Obama): I really cannot recall interminable ranting about how loathsome Obama is from conservatives throughout 2017-9, while their preferred candidate was in office. TDS is the wrong term for this - Trump just defined the Zeitgeist in a way that Biden did not. I'm sure in the future, a lot of people will "remember" Trump serving two consecutive terms starting in 2016, and will have to be reminded that he only served one (much like so many people "remember" Tim Burton directing The Nightmare Before Christmas, and have to be reminded that it was actually Henry Selick).

Trump linked the fire of Jeffersonian politics that is in the lineage of Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Huey Long and Reagan, burning away the soul of his fame and legacy to reignite the Kiln of the First Flame beneath the Washington Memorial to extend the Age of America.

Who stands in for Ornstein and Smough?

Ted Cruz and Chris Christie. (James Carville is Darkstalker Kaathe.)

Yet, there are those who wish to cross the Rubicon, to feed the flames and let the last cinders burn, until nothing remains.

Get away from me, Kaathe!

The age of dark is not yet here!

Is this supposed to be a reference to something?

To link the fire.

Couldn't you have just told me plainly that it was a Dark Souls reference, rather than give a vaguely-worded link to a youtube video?

I could have, yes.

Praise the Sun.

I feel like Donald Trump being good at golf is like Hitler being an animal lover. "See! He wasn't all bad..."

As for that, I don't think it matters a whole lot. The general blue-ish public is likely not going to stumble upon political content about Trump that's not negative. Media polarization and algorithmic bubbles do a powerful job. If you like Trump you can like him more. If you dislike Trump you can dislike him more.

I mean, it runs counter to the narrative that Trump is a Charlatan/Fraud at every level, not JUST in that it makes him relatable.

Dems like to tout his numerous failed businesses (I would counter by simply pointing out that that only correlates with the many times he's tried new business ideas, where most don't try at all) or imply that he wouldn't be a billionaire but for luck and family connections.

This here demonstrates that no, he actually has a demonstrable set of skills in at least one area, he's not all talk. And if he's got skills in golf, it makes it ever so slightly more likely that he's actually skilled at other tasks that require finesse, strategy, and endurance.

For me, I'd say that I realized that Trump wasn't just buying and/or lending his name to Golf Courses to try and pretend at sophistication, he actually has a passion for that sport.

I mean, it doesn't really. Rich people playing golf is a meme. He has all that time to get good at golf because he's not doing real work. He just passed a wealth threshold where his money works for him now.

It's not hard for a lefty to spin this as just another manifestation of Trump being a bad guy.

Sure... except golf isn't REALLY a 'rich mans game' anymore. Happy Gilmore is a bit outdated in that respect.

I happen to have already commented on this at length.

I am by no means rich and I grew up practicing golf along with a bunch of other sports. My solidly blue collar dad golfs all the time.

It's not like, say, Polo or high end motorsports where the barriers to entry are insurmountable.

Yes, rich people REALLY like golf. But to pretend that being good at golf makes someone less relatable to regular dudes is definitely not aware of actual golf culture.

I suspect you live in an extremely Trump-biased media bubble. In my Kamala-biased media bubble vibes are at an all time high and people are convinced that JD Vance is going to get fired and are non-stop fucking a couch memes. Both of us are too online to evaluate how any of this plays with normies.

Couch Fucking, if it emanates into the general public sphere will do nothing but make people think about old Dave Chappelle sketches, which are devastating to 2024 Democrat politics.

Yep. Also, I am sure just from simple probability if for no other reason that most people here do not live in swing states, which adds to the difficulty that we have in figuring out how various kinds of optics might actually impact the election.

non-stop fucking a couch memes

What?

At the time of writing, a /pol/ thread claims that this passage, in which Vance admits to masturbating with the lubed interior of a rubber glove held between two couch cushions, was in the first edition of his book, but was deleted from later editions.

So that's what Twitter was on about last night. Nice to know I can stop feeling uneasy about the Kamala blowjob jokes.

I'm... kinda impressed by how bad that is. I get that no one reads the original text, but good lords, you couldn't get a sharper tonal or stylistic mismatch from Elligy's writing style with a steel blade and a whetstone.

The man wouldn't use the word 'lush' unless held hostage, and I think 'chambers of manhood' would by only work Red Triber frameworks as a testes joke.

EDIT: for contrast, the portion where a lot of the words he would use was lifted from.

The more outrageous a lie you can get your followers to believe, the deeper you buy them into your team

Insofar as such half-joke-half-smear claims go, "JD Vance had sex with a couch" is rather benign compared to, say, "Big Mike Obama" or the implications of "I have information leading to the arrest of Hillary Clinton" and the like.

"I have information leading to the arrest of Hillary Clinton"

The things happening around Clinton were highly dubious and she is obviously corrupt, in a sleazy eastern European way (improbable futures/stock trading etc), not the polished American one (speaking fees etc).

And seeing as how Epstein died - and he was heavily associated with Clinton, who flew Lolita express numerous times, apparently 26 times - I don't have a hard time imagining she has been at times involved in someone getting killed outside of her official government work. (Where she infamously asked "Why don't we just drone Assange ?"..

Why are the other ones worse than this one? Also, is this the final verdict on whether this sort of thing is ok? No one is going to flip out anymore, if you pin that sort of thing on a left-winger?

"Big Mike Obama" - ie. the idea that Michelle Obama is trans, if taken seriously, implies there's been a decades-long conspiracy to cover up this fact, including, presumably, everything related to make people believe she has naturally birthed Sasha and Malia. The Hillary thing implies she's a mass murderer who kills everyone who opposes her. Vance having sex with a (lubricated glove stuck in a) couch, while embarrassing, would not be a completely expectional thing for a young-ish man to do.

The point is that right-wingers crying foul over this while not crying foul over similar but worse jokes from their own side.

More comments

That's a very interesting point you're making, though I think it made more sense in the other thread than here, and repeating it makes me think this is itself some sort of a psyop... But anyway, yeah, I think back in 2016 it was easier to stick your figer in the air, and tell which way the wind was blowing, even with all the aglorithms and social media bubbles. Today's Internet is so fake it feels like you never know what is real, and what is someone's marketing campaign.

Wait... @Tomato, I just reread that other thread, it doesn't make any sense over there either. Is "vibes are at an all time high" something y'all are trying meme into existence*? If so can you stop doing it here? In my book, this makes you no better then that dude who's spamming AmRen links through "criticizing white nationalism".

EDIT: *) Nevermind, I re-checked the results of that search and only the first one is about Kamala. Still, am I the only one who find the whole "we're all in bubbles, the vibes in my bubble are at an all time high" somewhat hamfisted into either thread?

Repeating an idea in multiple comments is common because people will naturally want to say the same thing multiple times if they believe it, it does not imply some kind of deliberate effort to shift opinion.

I guess I'm going full-schizo, but it just looked weird to me.

Or because I didn't get traction on it the first time, so I try it again hoping to spark the discussion I want. I, like most commenters, remain fairly sure I have the most brilliant idea underneath.

I'm just going to throw a bunch of quotes from the excellent Rick Reilly book Who's Your Caddy? in here. In the book, Sports Illustrated off-beat journalist Reilly set out to caddy for various people. He caddied at the Masters, he caddied for a blind guy, he caddied for Jon Daly, he caddied on the LPGA tour, and he caddied for Donald Trump. The book came out in 2007, so we're talking long before Trump Derangement Syndrome; long before anyone would have been offended by Trump's politics because no one at the time took Trump all that seriously. This isn't just pre-escalator, this is pre-birtherism because Barack Obama was still a longshot to run for President when they were on the course and nobody gave a shit where he was born, the Capitol Steps were still doing Hillary Clinton's I'm Gonna Run to the tune of Pink's I'm Coming Out because Hillary was the inevitable 2008 nominee for the Democrats. It was Her Turn. Democratic vs Republican interplay was Liz Lemon snipping at Jack Donaghy and Jack rolling his eyes at her. Reilly was just writing about this cooky rich celebrity he played golf with once.

I've condensed a lot of line breaks and paragraphs to make it easier in this format. Some emphasis added for money quotes.

The introduction to the chapter...

You do not interview Trump. You just try to be in the Doppler radar when his tornado blows by and sucks you in. You needn't even ask a question. Trump will take over from here. Your job is to simply try to keep your hat on and your Bic working. At the end of a 12-hour day, you will be spit out of a black stretch limo on a Manhattan street corner, unsure of what you've seen, your notes scattered, your mind severely Trumped. So you try to piece it together. Was it real? Any of it? All of it? So many lies. So many truths. So much bullshit. So much beauty. It all rolls into one colossal Trumpalooza.

While Reilly is around, Trump shoots a commercial for McDonald's:

MCDONALD'S IS HERE to film a commercial. All Trump has to do is eat a Big and Tasty and attest to its deliciousness. For this he gets $1 million. If it runs more than 3 months, he gets another million. But this is not what Trump is excited about. He's excited about the little yellow card McDonald's has given him. “With this little baby, I can eat McDonald's free the rest of my life!” he announces. “They say there are only nine in the world, Baby. Michael Jordan's got one, too. So I can be totally tapped out, fucking broke, living on the street, and still be able to eat!” Thank God. We won't have to throw a telethon.

Trump does not quite understand the concept of the book Reilly is writing...

PROBLEM IS, TRUMP wants you to play instead of caddy. He seems to want this more than anything else in the world. He's already got his caddy, Billy, ready to go—“Best caddy in the world!” he declares—and since the EuroBabe and Tiffany don't even play, Trump would have to play by himself and he just won't have that under any circumstances. You don't get the feeling Trump is a guy who requires a lot of personal quiet time. “But, see, the book isn't about playing, it's about caddying for—” “Did I tell you Bruce Willis is a member here? And Sylvester Stallone. And Rudy Giuliani. And . . .” So that settles that. “Any chance maybe you'd have a game tomorrow I could caddy for?” I ask. Trump stops and looks me square in the eye. “Believe me,” Trump says. “One day of me is enough.”

Reilly goes into the history of Trump's golf courses, hitting some highlights...

This story is absolutely true, though: When architect Jim Fazio, slightly less famous brother of architect Tom Fazio, was finished looking at the property and drawing up plans, he called Trump and said, “We can have 16 great holes.” “Whaddya mean, 16?” Trump says. Fazio explained that there wasn't enough land for the first two holes he wanted to build. “Why not?!” Trump bellowed. “Because people's houses are there,” Fazio said. Trump told Fazio to hold, picked up the phone, called somebody, and bought the houses. Fazio got his holes. You think Fazio doesn't know how to play his Trump?

My aunt asked me the other day, if Trump invited me to lunch would I say yes. And I said absolutely, and you're an idiot if you say no. I'm absolutely convinced that on a minor policy matter, something Trump has never really thought about or understood, anyone with a strong verbal IQ has at least a 50/50 shot at convincing Trump to take a stand on anything. I don't think I could change his position on Abortion, or Ukraine, but I could totally get Trump to try to federally ban that annoying voice at self checkout.

Trump also uses building his course as an opportunity to sneak advantages...

Building your own course must be more fun than being locked in a room with the Rockettes and a box of Lady Gillettes. For instance, Trump insisted the range be built between the 9th green and the 10th tee. See, when he's playing badly, he likes to go to the range and figure out what's wrong. It's quite illegal, but what are you gonna do? He's Da Boss.

A bunch of softball anecdotes I just thought were fun...

TRUMP REALLY DOES love golf. When asked to list the top 10 things that helped him climb his way back from $9.2 billion in debt in the 1990s—the largest financial comeback in history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records—Trump's No. 1 was: “Play golf.” “It helped me relax and concentrate,” he once wrote. “It took my mind off my troubles.” See, at that point in his life, he didn't get the free cheeseburgers.

“Trump let the LPGA host the ADT Championship there in November 2001. This is the tour wrapup for the top 30 women, with a $1 million purse. And, boy, did Trump put on the dog for them. And, boy, did the players put out the snarls for Trump. “It was awful,” says LPGA player Nancy Scranton. “It was tricked up. It was contrived, ridiculous, and stupid. He kept going around, pestering everybody: ‘Is this the toughest course you've ever played? Is it? Is it?' But, I have to admit, Mar-a-Lago was beautiful and Donald was a wonderful host.” Trump decreed that some of the mounds in front of lakes be mowed down to the height of cue balls so that short shots would all roll right back into the water. Trump was like a little boy melting ants with a magnifying glass. “I kept going around asking them, ‘When was the last time you scored this high?' And they kept saying, ‘When I was nine.' " During the first round, Trump walked right down the middle of the fairway with the players, who would sooner be followed by wolf-whistling construction workers than Trump. “You'd think he'd have better things to do,” grumbled Annika Sorenstam, the tour's best player. When Sorenstam tripled the first hole, Trump said, “Oops, looks like she just threw up on herself. You know, we could make this course more difficult if we wanted.”

Then there was the whole prison incident. According to written reports, inmates at the Palm Beach County Criminal Justice Complex, which is close to Trump International's third hole, got word that women pros were just across the way. So they started screaming things that might make hockey players blush, much less LPGA players. “That never happened!” Trump yells. “Never happened! That was put out by my enemies. The wall of the prison that faces the course doesn't even have windows!” Still, he put up a huge row of 200 palm trees to serve as a barrier. Cost him $1 million, which is a lot for something that never happened.

JUST A WORD on Trump's hair. There are those who do not like Trump's hair. My softball buddy, B-Square, asks, “The guy is worth billions, so all I can figure is that he must want to look like that!” And I admit, when I asked Trump to let me caddy for him, I was thinking maybe we would need a separate caddy for the hair. Up close, though, it is much less threatening and possibly real. It resembles red cotton candy. It seems to have been spun off a wheel and then fired. Maybe it's fiberglass. Remember making model cars when you were a kid, how the glue froze in cool, solid wisps? That is Trump's hair. I cannot imagine the teams of artists it must take to do his hair each day, but I know they must arrive by the busload. Somehow they've managed to make his hair look like the moment when you open a bottle of aspirin and you can't quite get the cotton ball out and it only comes partially out, all teased. That's Trump's hair.

And something Reilly got completely wrong in retrospect...

YOU EXPECT TRUMP to be a cad. You expect him to have a new woman every weekend. But this is four years now I've seen him at fights and Super Bowls and galas with the same woman—the zipper-busting Miss Melania. Here's a guy who owns a piece of the Miss Universe pageant and the Miss USA pageant—“I bought Miss Universe for $10 million,” he says, unsolicited. “I've already made $100 million in ad revenue on it”—and yet he stays with the same woman. Why isn't that in Guinness? True, staying faithful to Miss Melania is like staying true to your Ferrari Testarossa, but still, think of the opportunities!”

And now, finally, to the actual game of golf they played together...

TRUMP PLAYS GOLF fast. And well. We're on 11 and he still hasn't missed a fairway. OK, there's been a stray mulligan or two, but mostly he hits it low and far and straight. On 3, he drove it 310 yards, I kid you not. Three hundred and 10. Man is 56 years old. Doesn't matter how much hellajack you've got, you can't buy a golf game. He owns the joint so he parks the cart all the places he wants the rest of the world not to—edges of greens and backs of tee boxes. This makes for a very fast round. We will end up going 18 in three hours and 15 minutes and that includes stopping often to harangue the stonemason, the path paver, and the greenskeeper to redo the bricks, or retrim a tree, or repave a path that is not absolutely, immaculately Trumpalicious.

Reilly immediately admits that Trump is good, but he does take mulligans consistently. Which is no big deal. There's also something inherently Trumpian about parking the car where you aren't supposed to park the cart. If Barack Obama owned a golf course, he would follow the rules more closely than anyone, would agonize over making sure he never failed to repair a single divot. This is both a source of Trump's flaws, and a signal example of his basic humanity.

More on Trump's golf game and tendency to tell absolute whoppers...

DID YOU EVER have a friend in high school who would just tell you the most outrageous lies? Stuff like, “You know, my aunt is Farrah Fawcett.” And you and your buddies give him a wedgie because you know it will turn out like it always turns out, which is that his aunt once had a friend who k“new the lady who cut Farrah Fawcett's hair. Well, Trump is that kid, constantly making you write outrageous, stupid, impossible things he says into your notebook, accompanied by a scrawled CHECK THIS!!! But then—against all logic—most of them turn out to be true!

HERE'S ONE: TRUMP says he won the club championship at Trump International. Now he is a very good player. He ain't no 3, as he's been listed in business magazines, but he's a good 6, and at 7, I'd take him all day for a partner, loser sweeps the streets of Baghdad for a year. I'd even say he is the best-playing billionaire I know. However, I just don't see him winning a club championship. But damned if it didn't check out: In the first year of the club, he won the match-play championship. The guy who lost to him in the final said, “I thought I should let him win the first year. I didn't want him to raise my dues.” Stuff like that torques Trump's rump. If he wins, they let him. If he loses, he's a big blowhard. “Guys call me all the time, they want to come beat me at golf. So I'll bet some guy and he'll beat me and he'll go back to his club and brag to everybody about how he whipped Donald Trump's ass. What he doesn't mention is the five shots a side I gave him.”

On Trump the man...

YOU CAN SEE why his ex-wives still sort of like him. The man is flamboyant, creative, energetic, unpredictable, fun, and nuts. I mean, yes, everybody over the age of six sees how attention-needy he is, how full of himself he is, how if the conversation strays from him for 15 seconds, he lassoes it back around to himself. But you can also tell that at least half of him knows it and is chuckling right along with you. Yeah, he requires a lot of attention, but at least there's a lot to attend to. He's Big and Tasty—a complete whopper of a personality.

And the section on Trump's scoring fibs, tendency to give himself puts, chip ins, mulligans, best balls, and outright lies on his scorecard.

WHEN A MAN exaggerates, stretches, and twists the truth into origami every other 30 seconds, you're pretty much expecting him to cheat like a monkey in golf. So, yeah, Trump fudges. And he pencils. And he smudges. But at least he does it openly. Nothing worse than a sneak cheat. For instance, on the par-5 16th hole, I hit it close for a birdie 4 and he was still off the green, pin high in 4. So he says, “Great birdie! This is good, right?” and scoops it up with his wedge. First guy in history to give himself a chip-in. But I know a lot of big-time, seven-figure-a-year businessmen who do this. You think messing with the bottom line stops in the budget reports? It's like Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports columnist Steve Hummer once wrote: “According to a recent survey, 82 percent of corporate execs cheat at golf. It can also be extrapolated that 18 percent cheat on surveys.” What are you going to do, call the marshal? It's his course, his club, his world. And besides, he fixed my driver swing. “You're coming over the top instead of under with that driver“ he said. “Try it like this . . .” and he repaired my monster driver slice, just like that. What's funny is what Trump does vs. what Trump says. “Make sure you write that I play my first ball,” he says. “You don't get a second ball in this life.” And that's true, except for on 1 and 13 and 17. And he also says, “I don't like to take putts. That's not a true reflection of a man's score.” And that's true, too, except for the putts he took on every other hole, plus the occasional chip-in, and, of course, the one time he said, “I made a 5, but give me a 4. I've got to take at least one newspaper 4 today.” Again, at least he's out front with it. He shot 36-39–75. And thus you see how Trump's game is 80-proof. Not that he wasn't good enough to beat me. I shot 45-38–83. Trump acted like I had just shot 59 at Pine Valley. “I'm just so damn impressed!” he hollered. “You are the King! The way you hit it, you really ought to consider the Senior Tour!” He is saying this as I'm paying him the $10 I lost to him.

And wrapping up...

Loved Trump. Loved the lies. Loved the truths. Loved the bullshit. Loved the beauty. But, as I collapse into a hotel room that is finally, blissfully quiet, I decide Trump was absolutely truthful about one thing. One day is enough, Baby.

I recently bought a discount copy of Reilly's later book, all about Trump and golf, Commander in Cheat. It looks to be pure TDS, but my mother has loved Reilly since I was a kid and hated Trump since he stiffed a friend of the family on work at one of his AC casinos, so I thought it would make a fine beach read for her. Still, it's sad to see how Reilly wrote about Trump in 2007, and how he talks about him now. How did we all end up here? Why is it that quirky sports journalism pays so badly, with Sports Illustrated either dead or a shadow of itself, so that a guy like Reilly who was a legend is stuck doing third rate punditry for cash? Why is it that a jovial guy like Trump, whose life has been nothing but blessed, is so angry all the time? Why is our entire politics built around Trump, a guy who is mostly just himself? What decisions did we all make that got us from there to here?

I tend to take Reilly's 2007 assessment more seriously as journalism: Trump is an excellent golfer, a fun guy, and an inveterate but generally harmless liar. Larger than life, blustering, cartoonish and buffoonish, more human than most anyone.

The whole book is on LibGen, where I just downloaded it to make looking things up easier than going back to my parents' house and finding my childhood copy, I highly recommend it for a light summer read.

I think RR has a skill with the pen that few others have, but he is also a fabulist and a weirdo and that color's my view of this book (and did at the time I first read it). RR, if you don't know, a bit before writing this book also penned a piece about taking his 14 year old son to see a SI photoshoot. When you are around that age you find him to be the coolest dad. When you realize he's probably committing several misdemeanors and are a dad, you realize he's being an irresponsible dad. And obviously not all he is saying makes sense at all.

So in the end is this account of Trump true? Perhaps portions of it are. Trump probably hit some decent shots. Did he hit a 310 yard shot? Probably not. It was probably 299. Still great, but not up to RR storytelling standards. So IDK what really happened on that golf course, but I do know nothing happened that RR thought was BAD happened, because RR the fabulist could contrive Trump glancing at the shirt of a woman wearing nothing but a wet white tee into sexual assault. So just take every 10 and make it a 7 and move on from there.

What was the thing with the 14 year old?

He took his freshman son to at least two Sports Illustrated swimsuit photoshoots on a beach in Hawaii, after telling the boy’s mother that they were going to Hawaii to learn to surf. He then wrote an article about it.

Sports illustrated swimsuit models are wearing swimsuits. They're not strippers.

Pretty soon, women hot enough to ignite concrete were shaking Kel's hand with their right hands while trying to cover up their nude top halves with their lefts--and these were not the kind of halves easily covered up with one left hand.

Apparently, as befits a photoshoot where the models tend to change clothes often, they were not wearing swimsuits all the time.

Whether you believe that it was, or was likely to be, a bad experience for the kid is another matter.

Also the photographers are all weirdos as well, plus the ole lying to the kids mom about it.

This might be a weird form of tradition, but I find it quite normal and good for a father and teenage son to have "don't tell your mother" moments together. I don't find it particularly offensive in concept for a mother and daughter to have "don't tell your father" moments, either, though I find thinking of them to be more difficult as I am not a woman.

... What's the bad thing here?

If you read the article, the dad just comes across as a bit of a skeeve. He gives off South Park police “Nice” vibes.

It got worse. One model was changing out of her suit behind a towel. When she kicked off her bikini bottom, it went flying in the air, did a 2 1/2 gainer and landed on Kel's shoulder. He grinned. She grinned. In many states she could do three to five for that. I was thinking that if she did it to me, I would gladly do the time.

The way the article is written definitely comes off as more of a crime to me than the actual act of bringing the teen to swimsuit photoshoots.

I can agree, however, that we have a Schelling fence of "thou shalt not let underage people be in sexually charged situations with adult people" for a reason, even though some might believe that such situations are more desirable for teen boys than teen girls.

"drag queen moms" do creepier shit than that with little kids at the local library and nobody gives a shit. They've just criminalized male sexuality to the point everyone's internalized it.

I give a shit, as do most people here. It’s perfectly possible to find both sets of behavior off-putting or immoral.

I'm absolutely convinced that on a minor policy matter, something Trump has never really thought about or understood, anyone with a strong verbal IQ has at least a 50/50 shot at convincing Trump to take a stand on anything.

I'm convinced that if the Democratic Party was just willing to let Trump get the credit, they could have had their entire wishlist of infrastructure/green energy projects during his presidency on a scale unprecedented since the CCC.

I doubt that- you’re not changing Trump’s mind on fossil fuels(although solar energy as handouts to middle class people is probably an easy sell to him).

My understanding is the guy loves construction, especially getting to interact with the individual workers. You could have easily pitched him wind turbines, pumped hydro, or battery factories.

I think you need to be very careful with naming towns after sitting presidents, because of the precedent.

That's part of the Trump joke.

All they would have to do is stop lying to each other so much and govern like they care about the country, and he'd be non-viable. All they would have to do is flatter the guy a bit and they could get plenty of legislation.

But they won't.

I was interning in DC at the time, and all anyone on the right side of the aisle could think about in December 2016 was how screwed we all were if the dems simmered down for 5 minutes and realized Trump would happily sell out the entire conservative movement for a single Jay-Z concert on the White House lawn.

Yes, but not only would they have had to let take the credit, they would have had to accept "buy American" rules (probably acceptable), AND they would have had problems with the build-absolutely-nothing environmentalism (from their own camp) that resulted in things like a moratorium on solar projects in the desert. And while the Republican complaints about offshore wind killing whales and such would have gone away, they would have gotten it more from their own side.

Excuse me sir, this is a democracy. Why would a politician let their rival get the credit?

I always love reading your longer posts, you always seem to provide a fresh perspective on things for me.

I never really understood the appeal of golf. Does Trump love the game for what is truly is, or does he love it because it's a rich person sport you can brag about with other rich people that play that sport? Based on his skills and anecdotes, it sounds like he actually is passionate about the sport.

See, at that point in his life, he didn't get the free cheeseburgers.

Gave me a chuckle, I think I might take on your recommendation and read Reilly's book just for making me laugh.

And something Reilly got completely wrong in retrospect...

Maybe I'm just not awake yet but what did Reilly get wrong exactly? Trump is still married to Melania and she continues to serve as the woman by his side on public appearances. I guess the claim that Trump is 100% faithful to Melania is technically untrue since everyone now knows about the Stormy Daniels story but isn't Melania his 3rd marriage? Did Trump actually have a reputation for being a 100% faithful guy back in 2007?

Why is it that a jovial guy like Trump, whose life has been nothing but blessed, is so angry all the time?

I imagine years of your character being attacked would be enough to break anyone. There may not be a single person on earth who's had more negative coverage about them than Trump in the entire world. I'm certain before he got involved into politics most interactions Trump had with the media was positive

What decisions did we all make that got us from there to here?

I ponder that too from time to time. I don't think the current world of politics and discourse would have been even considered a possibility to myself from 10 to 15 years ago. What a time we live in.

Maybe I'm just not awake yet but what did Reilly get wrong exactly? Trump is still married to Melania and she continues to serve as the woman by his side on public appearances.

This is speculation of course, but when I watched Trump and Melania at the RNC, to me they pretty clearly had the body language of two people who are not having sex with each other anymore. And knowing Trump's life-long appreciation of beautiful women, I doubt that he has simply stopped having sex altogether.

What was it about their body language that gave you that impression

Lack of eye contact, stiff body postures, awkward kiss on the cheek.

Ah yeah - glad I asked since that's what I thought you meant (the awkward kiss on the cheek)

In my experience when a woman gives you that particular juke it's because she doesn't want you to mess up her make up. I'd imagine that applies 100x if you're a literal super model and 1000x if you're in front of the entire country

I never really understood the appeal of golf. Does Trump love the game for what is truly is, or does he love it because it's a rich person sport you can brag about with other rich people that play that sport? Based on his skills and anecdotes, it sounds like he actually is passionate about the sport.

Golf is an endless difficult and rewarding sport. It's a game that just throws endless euphoria and disappointment at you. I love it desperately (I just came back from a holiday where I played golf every day, sometimes multiple times, for two weeks) and I understand why some might not. But Trump loving golf makes a lot of sense to me.

I recently read Nikaidou Hell Golf , which a manga series about a man trying to go pro but failing over and over again. Unlike a lot of manga, which is aimed at a younger audience and usually carries a theme of success and triumph, Nikaidou Hell Golf is a seinen manga (target audience being young adult men and older) and it is a story of failure. I think it did touch on golf being a "endless difficult and rewarding sport", the protagonist, Nikaidou Susumu, is a loser with mediocre skills that relies on the sponsorship of others to be able to attempt to become pro.

However, he never gives up (at least up to the most recent chapter) despite watching countless peers of his give up on their dreams to become an adult and take a job that pays the bills, despite being ostracized by those who once saw him as their hope of creating a successful pro golfer and by his much younger peers in the same program, and despite losing his sponsorship and having to come up with his own way of getting money to try to go pro (including taking money from his own retired mother that saved money for a vacation).

You essentially have a man with no future, who continued to take advantage of the goodwill of others in pursuit of his selfish dreams, and is unable to face reality that he should just give up on his dreams and move on with his life. Yet, if you read the story, it becomes clear the man is very aware of his own flaws, he knows he's taking advantage of those around him and feels immense guilt. In a sense, he is an addict, an addict to the game of golf, and to the idea that if he just goes pro he can fix all his mistakes and earn the adoration and respect of those around him.

The story is still ongoing, so it's not 100% clear exactly what the message the author intends to convey with the story. But it does touch a lot on the themes of adulthood, failure, dreams versus reality, and of course, euphoria and disappointment, all centered around one man's relationship with golf.

When golf presents itself in a story like this, I don't mind having to read about it. However, rather than enjoying golf in and of itself, I'm finding entertainment in the stories golf might create. I usually don't find any entertainment in watching an actual game of golf or looking at stats through golf (it also doesn't help that I actually don't play the sport, so those stats mean very little to me). It might just be because I don't create my own stories around these events, while those that do enjoy golf are able to immerse themselves in some kind of greater narrative beyond the game of golf. In a similar vein, I find baseball to be utterly boring, despite finding Michael Lewis' Moneyball to be a fascinating read.

Part of the reason I might not be able to formulate my own stories could be I'm just not in a bubble where anyone actually cares about golf. I work in a more technical role in a tech-focused company, where I rarely interact with executive level people (but I don't think even they really play golf). So none of the coworkers I interact with daily play golf, nobody in my family plays golf, the only time I really knew anyone that played golf was in college because some of my peers worked and played golf at the nearby country clubhouse. But those guys were in a different social group, with a different background. They were from rich, upper class families, while I attended the school on scholarship (and I chose the school precisely because it would cost me the least amount of money to graduate from). I didn't play the networking game well and that's my one regret in college, but honestly, even now I'm not sure, I could've done a good job at it. I don't think I would ever really be close friends with most of them. Perhaps if I did, I might have come to appreciate golf more for what it is.

But alas, golf to me just isn't something I can find myself to really be excited about. At best, it can serve as a medium for storytelling, and I can appreciate it through that, but as a sport in and of itself I can't find myself enjoying. For a guy like Trump, who probably grew up playing golf, who is surrounded by many others who engage in the sport, and who has many stories and experiences with surrounding it, I'm sure golf resonates with him on a deeper level. He's a big man with big stories, after all.

I never really understood the appeal of golf.

It's an outdoor activity that is neither too jocky like playing actual sports, too blue-collar like hunting or fishing nor too nerdly like flying model planes.

It's also doesn't require a rare location like a snowy mountain or a sea.

So when you want to meet with another manager in a casual environment, there aren't that many other options.

Neither hunting nor fishing are particularly blue collar in a U.S. context, although they are conservative coded. Elites do these things more expensively than working class folks, of course, but engaging in the activity doesn’t in itself indicate any particular spot on the class ladder.

Indeed, a manager inviting another manager out on his boat to go fishing is reasonably common.

I agree, but it's more boating than fishing.

So when you want to meet with another manager in a casual environment, there aren't that many other options.

Interestingly in England, the home of golf, this is known as ‘the pub’.

England, the home of golf

Scotland is NAE the same place as England!

Golf also has the advantage of being random. I can run with /u/Walterodim a dozen times, he'll be faster than me every time, he'll only stay with me by holding back. There will never be a day when, just randomly, I'm faster than him for a bit.

Trump looks like vintage Tiger Woods compared to me, but if I joined the scramble group here, I'd probably make a couple good shots, maybe just lucky chips or long putts anyone has a lie percentage chance at. I'm terrible, but at least a couple times a round I'll hit a ball so well that I'm thrilled.

Where in say, weightlifting, I'm always going to deadlift less than my concrete contractor and more than my wife, in golf I'll sometimes get lucky and hit one better than a pro would, and sometimes duff it completely.

I guess the claim that Trump is 100% faithful to Melania is technically untrue since everyone now knows about the Stormy Daniels story but isn't Melania his 3rd marriage?

As far as I can tell Trump has always denied that anything happened between him and Stormy Daniels.

Her story sounds like one of the Harvey Weinstein accusers: she's invited to his room, goes to use the bathroom, comes out to find Trump undressed, he blocks the door when she tries to leave. The Weinstein story broke in 2017, Stormy's story went public in 2018. Here's the NYT liveblogging the trial:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/05/07/nyregion/trump-trial-hush-money-stormy-daniels

Stormy Daniels says she came out of the bathroom and found that Trump was in the bedroom, waiting for her, in his boxer shorts and a T-shirt. She had been planning to go, she said. He was seated on the bed, between her and the exit. “What did I misread to get here,” she describes thinking. She says she tried to leave and he blocked her path, but not in a threatening manner.

Her prior recounting of the story in 2011 to In Touch Weekly doesn't contain such details:

https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/stormy-daniels-full-interview-151788/

I had to use the bathroom and I went to the restroom, which was in the bedroom. Like I said, it was a big suite. I could describe the suite perfectly. When I came out, he was sitting on the bed and he was like, “Come here.” And I was like, “Ugh, here we go.” And we started kissing. I actually don’t even know why I did it but I do remember while we were having sex, I was like, “Please don’t try to pay me.” And then I remember thinking, “But I bet if he did, it would be a lot.”

Certainly when I read it at 15 or 16, I never would have even considered the possibility of Trump fucking other women on the side as fitting within "loyalty" to his wife, and I don't think Reilly would have either, he was basically conservative in his moral views (most notably at the time reflected in his steroid coverage). Open relationships or "having an understanding" was for the Savage Love column in the back page of The Onion, not the back page of SI.

I don't think there's a fundamental difference at this point between Trump enjoying things rich people like and enjoying things in themselves. But if there is a distinction to be drawn, it's golf. He's been an avid golfer and builder of golf courses for most of his life at this point. The competition, the show off, the social game, all things that are Trumpian. Even his game itself reflects him: Drive for show, putt for dough; that's how he plays.

I never really understood the appeal of golf. Does Trump love the game for what is truly is, or does he love it because it's a rich person sport you can brag about with other rich people that play that sport?

While this is not as true in recent days, for Trump's generation of business men, golf was an absolutely essential part of success. I had friends getting the MBAs in the 90s that said, while it would be strange for the business school to actually make golf lessons a required class for the degree, if you were serious about your career it really kinda of was. A lot of negotiation and deal making happens on golf courses.

Women probably to some extent killed the golf course as a central venue for dealmaking.

Thanks for this, one of the best Motte posts I've read in awhile, and not just because I read Who's Your Caddy a million years ago and always wanted to go back to it during the Trump era. IIRC, Trump is the first chapter.

I loved this book as a teenager. I loved Rick Reilly in general, I have deep nostalgia for those columns, although I look back on some of his stuff as hackneyed or simply incorrect. I can hardly take credit for just condensing a twenty page chapter into a few bites for the crowd.

“With this little baby, I can eat McDonald's free the rest of my life!” he announces. “They say there are only nine in the world, Baby. Michael Jordan's got one, too. So I can be totally tapped out, fucking broke, living on the street, and still be able to eat!”

This is the funniest thing I've seen all week.

I didn't think you could make that White House McDonald's photo any funnier but here we are.

I'm just imagining him pulling out that worn yellow baby and reminding people MJ has one before ordering.

Oh my god... this changes everything...

Wonder who got the other seven. I somehow doubt any of them are in a position where the card would make any serious financial advantage.

I found myself asking if he used that card to cater those well-publicized meals at the White House.

Most efficient ad dollars McD's ever spent if so...

(if not, too I suppose)

Strong agree. He comes off as the exact opposite of a mean spirited sociopathic bully, he’s downright warm, empathizing, understanding, if I only had this footage to judge from I would absolutely believe he is a very good grandfather.

I clicked randomly through the video and ended up at 18:50, which is a conversation where he is listening to his opponent talk about his own experience and Donald is intently listening, not interrupting, not changing the topic, and then expanding on what the other guy said. A lot of people who think of him as mean or abusive could learn a thing or two about how to socialize from him.

Anyone can come across well while doing their favorite thing with a sympathetic person. And let's not forget he's running for election. Of course he wants to try to come across as something other than an asshole too.

I completely disagree. I think many people can’t be charming while doing their favourite thing. Some people really don’t know how to be anything but self centred. People trying to fake warmth are usually very obvious, and if indeed Trump is faking here, it reveals a very sharp mind.

Man, Golfing actually looks comfy. I always thought it was stuffy and pretentious and frankly more than a little silly as far as sports go, but looking at this video all that I see is people having some calm fun outdoors in nice weather and nice (though articifial) landscape. Not that I'm about to start golfing, but I hereby withdraw my unjustified dislike for it.

Golf would be awesome if not for the part that learning to not be horrible takes extended training and even then you might still be horrible.

I learned to golf with my grandfather at a young age. I am not good by any means, but I am also not truly horrible. If I practice for a summer I edge into what I consider acceptable. When I was 19 or so, me and a bunch of HS friends golfed together at a fairly easy local club. None of them were good. None were acceptable. None were whatever level is below acceptable. We had a 9:00 AM tee time and didn't complete the course until 3:30. Several squads played through us.

I think many a figure have called golf "A good walk spoiled" from Mark Twain to the recent John Feinstein book. And I cant disagree if you aren't good. Shooting anything over 100 is a miserable experience. And you will shoot over 100 for the first year of your golfing journey unless you are particularly gifted, started young, or have a lot of time to practice.

Golfing isn't a sport, it is a networking event. You and three other people get to spend four hours together while having a bit of fun and experiencing some emotional ups and downs.

Sailing is largely about being a bunch of guys on a yacht and having fun together.

I was recently invited to a sporting event to which a friend has season tickets to the lounge. My friend doesn't even like sports, he just wants to be in a lounge with people who spend two months average salary to be in a lounge.

That's really overstating it. I play golf by myself because I just like golfing. Tons of people take golf seriously for its own sake.

It’s not a bad game, but it’s mostly a network thing for business people that caught on with aspirational people because rich business people play it. The reason the rich like it is because the high cost of entry (equipment, greens fees, cart rentals) tend to keep plebs away. And because it takes several hours to play a game, you can use it to do business deals in private without having to worry too much about people you don’t want in on those deals finding out about it.

Is this a troll? Golf is one of the most affordable and accessible hobbies you can have, and it's accordingly one of the most popular. Golf clubs are cheap and plentiful on the used market, and public courses aren't expensive. My local courses are like ten bucks to walk 9 on a weekday. And it's still fun even if you aren't any good. If you want an elitist sport there's skiing, which requires more expensive equipment, higher fees for access (and depending on where you live may involve significant travel expenses), and requires a degree of skill to avoid injury. It's hard to convince someone who doesn't ski that they should spend several hundred dollars on a day of falling in the hope that they'll spend several thousand dollars to get to the point where they can make it down a moderately steep slope. Or mountain biking, which is "free" most places but involves eye watering upfront costs.

Is this a troll? Golf is one of the most affordable and accessible hobbies you can have, and it's accordingly one of the most popular.

This is very country-dependent. In the UK, Ireland, and certain Commonwealth countries golf is very affordable, bordering on cheap. In the US it is generally affordable, somewhat less so in the south. But in mainland Europe and Asia golf is a sport for the elite.

Yeah but Golf in like a corporate/social content is likely to be towards the fucking around end of the spectrum.

Also something I've come to appreciate about Golf and Bouldering lately is that they function well in a social sport context for being remarkably self-handicapping. A group of 4 people can all go casually and have a reasonably stimulating experience.

What is the purpose of this post, aside from cheerleading for your preferred candidate?

given I watched the entire video and it led to the best comment of the week so far, I think it was a fine post, cheerleading or not

If the consensus position on Trump in the popular imagination (and in the mainstream press) shifts from "openly white supremacist neo-Nazi authoritarian who poses a unique threat to American democracy" to "garden-variety middle-of-the-road conservative with some unusual personality traits, deep-seated flaws and no small amount of personal charm", that seems like a vibe shift worth reporting on. Not to say that such a shift has occurred, but this video suggests that it might be commencing.

If the narrative shifts like that it'll be because he's no longer considered a threat.

Eh. Bryson isn't really neutral. He's a longtime Trump guy. Close friends with the son, used to be sponsored by the Trump people. This is a step below the Brat edits for "grassroots credibility." This is campaign material, not neutral reporting.

And ‘we’re the normal ones’ is itself a shift in Trump’s messaging.

Hmm. It's Biden who gives a shit about golf not Kamala so this comes off as yesterday's battle. Besides, I don't think his hand-eye coordination and ability to act clubby are big news or change all the other things that render him beyond the pale.

One of Kamala's surrogate's lines is that Trump is too old. Him being an excellent (heck even mediocre) golfer makes this accusation ridiculous to basically every man in the world.

Biden wasn't going to be able to do this even if he was still in the race, and so it just reminds me that Dems were protecting an invalid. It's also a rare view of the man when he's not in bully mode. If any fence-sitters have concerns that the 'madman' routine is how he is down to his core, displays like this serve as a bit of an antidote.

It's also noteworthy that this did not trigger the automatic kiss of death or moral outrage that is usually given to celebrities who dare to 'normalize Trump'. 'Member when Fallon got scorched for jokingly touching Trump's hair? I certainly do.

Even on this forum some have denied Donald J. Trump"s golf skills. Now, I think even scoring an eagle on every hole doesn't make him a better president, but if some suffer from the horn effect so severe, they must be shown the truth.

Law of Merited Impossibility strikes again?

"X isn't happening Trump is bad at golf AND IF it does he's good THEN it's a good thing who even cares"

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Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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