May 27th 2020

By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

If you are going to read just one (or just one more) book about Donald Trump and his character, what drives him, what explains his behavior in all the realms of his life (at least in the ones of which we are aware), I strongly recommend Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump (Hachette Books, 2019).  It was written by the golf writer, Rick Reilly, who for a long time was associated with Sports Illustrated and ESPN.

Golf has been an integral part of Trump's life since he was a youngster, both as a player and later as a golf-course owner. As Reilly retails it, in both realms of golf --- player and course-owner --- Trump is a master cheat, bully, liar, and tall story teller. Reilly has many illustrations of Trump's behavior, on the course, in the club houses, and in the owner's offices/suites. The book is filled with humor, which makes it an easy read. But of course, the subject is deadly serious and Reilly is serious about his work as a journalist.

By the way, this is not a gossip book. It is a work of journalism, filled with personal observations that the author has made of Trump over the years, plus many stories told by others, from well-known professional golfers, to members of Trump golf clubs, to a variety of amateurs and entertainment types who have played with him, to caddies, both Trump's and other's, and then double-checked by the author.  It is most revealing about Trump the person, as well as Trump the golfer and Trump the golf-businessman. And, the humor to the contrary not-withstanding, it is a scary book, which I think Mr. Reilly intended it to be.

Mr. Reilly begins the book with a quote from the English author and humorist P.G. Wodehouse : "To find a man's true character, play golf with him." While many a famous person in golf played with Trump, learned his true character, and still associated their name with his for one reason or another, one of the most famous golfers, who associated his own name with a variety of golfing and non-golfing products, was once asked by Trump to join in a business venture with him. The man said, "OK. Let's play a round." After it, he just walked away and never spoke with Trump again.

Mr. Reilly ends his book with the following:

"I feel sorry for Donald Trump. I feel sorry for someone who has to juggle that many spinning lies, who has to fight that many endless feuds, who has to cheat and lie and insult so many good people just to stand on a rickety first-place podium that never stops needing rebuilding.

"The truth is, the person in golf Donald Trump cheats the most is himself. . . . 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. [See Trump’s 2016 Presidential win, which he knows could not have happened without Russian interference, because he was at the center of it.  That’s why he goes on about it so.]

"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."

And it is to that conclusion that I have come about Trump: he is a perpetual loser, he knows it, and the purpose of everything he does is to cover up that fact from himself, from his followers, and from the public at large around the world.  No matter now high he gets --- even to the position of the most powerful single leader-of-government in the world --- it is never enough.  And it indeed cannot be enough.

Trump has a not-terrible handicap in golf, around a 10, but he has always claimed it is 2 or 3.  In story after story from fellow golfers and caddies at all levels he always cheats on his score, whether on his card, or in moving or having a cooperative caddie move his ball out of the rough, or pull it out of a water trap, or move it closer to the hole on the green, in one way or another. He claims around 18 club championships at his own clubs, but those “championship” rounds he has almost always played by himself, most often the first time anyone went through on the course after he took ownership of it.  His cheating goes from there to, well beyond the golf course, stiffing, threatening, and bullying investors/members/designers/builders/maintainers of his clubs, and the communities in which they are located, in a variety of ways, over and over again. (Not to mention keeping 8 goats on his course at Bedminster, N.J., so that he can claim an $80,000 "agricultural" tax exemption.) And on and on.

But why does he do this? As mentioned, he is not a terrible golfer. (Although I don’t play --- hitting that little round white ball with any golf club and making it go where you want it to go was always beyond me --- I understand that a 10 is a decent handicap.)  His golf clubs/courses are not terrible, although they have never made the World "Top Courses" Lists that he claims they have made.  Further, he has on occasion called the makers of those lists to threaten them with one bad outcome or another if a given course of his was not included (sound familiar?)  BUT he is just not a real winner, something he has always wanted to be, but never has been, and deep down he knows it ---- and that's what counts.

Think of the failures over the course of his life. When he was a young real estate investor in the 70’s and 80’s, he was given tons of money by his father, bailing him out time-and-again, but claiming that the money was his so that he could appear to be “successful.” Then came the bankruptcies at Atlantic City in the 90s. Then came the who-yet-knows-what with the Russians and Deutsche Bank since US banks stopped lending to him in the late 90s, down to this time. 

Why won't he reveal his income tax records? That's easy.  It’s so likely: more massive losses; much lower-than-hinted-at net worth (ever notice that Trump does not talk about his net worth, even in the most general of terms?); more bail-outs by who-knows-who; more borrowing-on-top-of borrowing; possibly more illegal campaign contributions (another sign of a loser --- if you are a winner, you don't need to hide them); and of course possible money-laundering in condominium sales to help him cover more losses. And might just the perpetual cheater in golf, documented over-and-over again by Mr. Reilly, be cheating elsewhere, as Michael Cohen stated, on, for openers, his tax deductions and insurance claims?

And then we come to the Presidency. Only in the United States, with a Presidential electoral system unlike that of any other country in the world, the design of which is, as is well-known, a legacy of slavery, could this totally unqualified, ill-equipped, really uninterested in the day-to-day-job-of-President, rabidly ignorant, man become President. And he knows it. Just as he knows that he wouldn’t be President if the Russians hadn’t interfered on his behalf.  Which knowledge cooks him and cooks him and cooks him.

And so, he is a perpetual loser, and again, he knows it. Which can explain virtually all of his actions as President, from the mundane, like wanting to have the number of people at his inauguration faked upwards, to the meaningful, like his constant focusing on those powers of the office that he can exert by himself, like tariffs and immigration policy, like the exclusion of his attention to a large number of other problem-areas that concern the U.S. government (like, oh just to pick one at random, dealing effectively with the COVID-19 Trumpidemic2020©).  But Trump cannot truly be President any more than he can truly play to a 2-3 handicap on the golf course.  Combine that with life-long loser.  If this understanding of the man is used effectively and efficiently by former Vice-President Biden in the forthcoming election campaign, it can play a major role in beating him.

An earlier version of this column was published at: https://www.opednews.com/articles/Donald-Trump-Loser-by-Steven-Jonas-Donald-Trump_Donald-Trump-Lies_Donald-Trump-Narcissist_Donald-Trump-Racist-190627-507.html

Steven Jonas, MD, MPH, MS is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at StonyBrookMedicine (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 35 books.  In addition to his position on OpEdNews as a “Trusted Author,” he is a Deputy Editor, Politics, and a “Witness to History” for The Greanville Post;  a contributor to Reader Supported News/Writing for Godot; a contributor to From The G-Man; and a Contributor for American Politics to The Planetary Movement.  He is also a triathlete (36 seasons, 256 multi-sport races). 

Dr. Jonas’ latest book is Ending the ‘Drug War’; Solving the Drug Problem: The Public Health Approach, Brewster, NY: Punto Press Publishing, (Brewster, NY, 2016, available on Kindle from Amazon, and also in hardcover from Amazon).  His most recent book on US politics is The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022: A Futuristic Novel (Trepper & Katz Impact Books, Punto Press Publishing, 2013, Brewster, NY), and available on Amazon.  

He has a distribution list for his columns.  If you would like to be added to it, please send him an email at sjtpj@aol.com.