AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Famed sportswriter Rick Reilly took a victory lap after it was revealed that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) testified that President Donald Trump cheats at golf — confirming Reilly’s own reporting.
Trump has a long history of taking a great degree of creative license in describing his golf game, bragging about “winning” tournaments at his own golf clubs (sometimes even when he misses half of it).
He’s also been repeatedly and credibly accused of being a serial cheat — occasionally even caught on video, like an incident last summer in which his caddy was spotted dropping Trump’s ball in a much more favorable spot than he had actually hit it.
In Reilly’s 2019 book, Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, he detailed the president’s obsessive need to win, even if it required outlandish lies and obvious schemes.
“He cheats like a mafia accountant,” said Reilly about Trump. “He cheats crazy. He cheats whether you’re watching or not. He cheats whether you like it or not.”
On Thursday, The New York Times reported on transcripts from Graham’s 2022 grand jury testimony in an election interference case in Georgia.
Graham has publicly bragged about the president’s prowess on the golf course many times, but he sang a different tune at this grand jury proceeding when questioned by a prosecutor if Trump cheated at golf.
“Some people say you may outdrive him, but you’re not going to outdrive his caddy,” the South Carolina senator said. “It is what it is.”
Reilly pounced on the Times’ article about Graham’s testimony, calling it vindication of both his reporting and his theory that a person who cheated on the golf course would cheat in other areas of life too.
“Trump always has a 2nd caddy in the fairway to fluff up his lies [before] anybody gets out there,” wrote Reilly. “Golf cheater = Life cheater. #CommanderInCheat.”
Reilly directly addressed his MAGA critics by quoting Graham again, writing “To all the MAGAs who said I lied in my book about Trump cheating like a three-card money dealer on the golf course, Sen. Lindsey Graham just said it under oath. ‘You may outdrive him, but you can’t outdrive his caddy.””
“Cheat at golf — Cheat at life,” he added. “#CommanderInCheat.”
