Few leaders in the world have been as openly friendly to President Trump as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. kyodo/Reuters
On Tuesday, in the wake of allegations that President Donald Trump cheated during a golf tournament at his New Jersey course over the weekend, famed sportswriter Rick Reilly delivered an unreserved assessment of the commander-in-chief’s performance — not only at golf, but generally speaking.
“Notice how Trump f—— up everything?” Reilly posted. “Reflecting pool was fine. Now it's fenced off. Kennedy Center was fine. Now it's closed. WH was fine. Now it looks like a 99-cent Thai joint. Boats sailed thru Hormuz. Now Iran owns it. Golf was cool. Now there's a greasy orange splotch on it.”
Reilly’s criticism of Trump’s impact on the sport came after a video taken over the weekend appeared to show a caddy helping the president cheat by dropping a new ball on the green to replace one in the rough. The renowned ESPN and Sports Illustrated writer, who wrote a book entitled Commander In Cheat in which he exposed the president’s underhanded tactics, has been slamming Trump’s dubious game ever since.
For example, on Monday, he retweeted a photo promoting Trump’s claim that he’d just won his 43rd championship. According to Reilly, “Among the many hilarious things about club championship #43 is that he lies so much about them he loses his place. We went from 26 to 36 overnight, then skipped 39, 40 and 41. Actual number: 0.”
Later that day, he declared of Trump’s claim of winning with a score of 70, “Just so non-golfers know[,] No 80-year-old on earth with a pancake swing and the chip yips has ever shot TEN SHOTS under his age. Club members let him win because nobody wants to get audited the rest of their lives.” For the uninitiated, “chip yips” are involuntary twitches or freezes during a chip shot that disrupt a golfer’s normal motion and cause mishits, and are often the result of anxiety or injury.
Then after Trump gloated of his opponents, “It's called TALENT, and I have it, and they don't,” Reilly replied, “No, it's called ‘CADDIES WHO CHEAT FOR ME SO THEY DONT GET DEPORTED.’ ... If Trump can shoot 70, Oprah can dunk.”
He rounded this out with his list of the “current Trump Whopper standings,” writing, “1) ‘Inflation is down!’ 2) ‘I just won my club championship!’ 3) ‘We won the war!’ The guy will be lying three days after he's dead.”