The Golf
Analogy That Explains a Lot About Trump
President
Trump invoked the golfing great Sam Snead to justify a plan to accept a $400
million plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One.
Shawn
McCreesh
By Shawn
McCreesh
Shawn
McCreesh is a White House correspondent. He covered President’s Trump’s news
conference in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/us/politics/trump-sam-snead-qatar-plane.html
May 12, 2025
This is the
parable of the president and the putt.
It was
Monday morning in Washington and President Trump was in the Roosevelt Room of
the White House, signing one more executive order before departing for his
expedition to the Middle East. Over the weekend, news had broken about his plan
to accept a $400 million plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One. Questions
abounded.
This
luxurious gift from the Qataris presented all sorts of concerns — ethical,
legal, logistical, mechanical. There was also the fact that Mr. Trump had once
described Qatar as a “funder of terrorism at a very high level.” Even some of
his dearest supporters were concerned. “We cannot accept a $400 million ‘gift’
from jihadists in suits,” Laura Loomer, a far-right activist whose advice the
president has occasionally heeded, wrote on social media. “This is really going
to be such a stain on the admin if this is true.”
Mr. Trump
was having none of it.
“They’re
giving us a free jet,” he said. “I could say, ‘No, no, no, don’t give us, I
want to pay you a billion, or $400 million,’ or whatever it is. Or, I could
say, ‘Thank you very much.’”
He paused.
Something had occurred to him. All this preciousness over the plane reminded
him of something he had heard once and never forgotten. It was just a little
thing, really, and he said it almost as an aside. But it told so much about Mr.
Trump and the way he sees the world.
“There was
an old golfer named Sam Snead,” he said. “Did you ever hear of him?”
Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., Dr. Mehmet Oz, the chief of staff Susie Wiles and a smattering of
other presidential aides in the room looked up at their boss, perhaps unsure
where he was heading.
Old Sam
Snead “had a motto,” Mr. Trump continued. “When they give you a putt, you say,
‘Thank you very much.’ You pick up your ball, and you walk to the next hole. A
lot of people are stupid. They say, ‘No, no, I insist on putting it.’ Then they
putt it, they miss it, and their partner gets angry at them.”
“Remember
that,” Mr. Trump said. Some of his aides nodded appreciatively at this most
Trumpian pearl of wisdom that was being dispensed. “Sam Snead,” he repeated.
“When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and
you say, ‘Thank you very much.’”
It was a bit
of a stretch, comparing a gimme in golf to accepting a luxury jet from a
foreign government. And there is doubt about whether Mr. Snead ever even
uttered those words. “Sam never said any of that,” said Al Barkow, a prominent
golf writer who wrote “Sam: The One and Only Snead.”
Still, as
simplistic as the analogy was, it was a revealing insight into how Mr. Trump
views not only the plane but all the other ethical concerns swirling around
him.
To name but
a few: His family has six pending deals with a majority Saudi-owned real estate
firm; Qatar is backing another Trump project; and the United Arab Emirates is
getting in on the Trump family’s cryptocurrency ventures. His two oldest sons
are currently hopscotching the globe, striking deals that directly benefit
their father. He is also now selling access to himself to top buyers of the
digital coin his family is marketing. Even the first lady is pushing crypto
these days.
Mr. Trump
said on Monday that he’d be a “stupid person” to turn down the Qatari plane. It
was an echo back to one of his earlier ethical snafus, when he was running
against Hillary Clinton, who accused him of having not paid federal income tax
for years. “That makes me smart,” was Mr. Trump’s answer back then.
In his view,
all the world is a golf course, and only a fool would turn down a putt.
Shawn
McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump
administration.
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