Trump and golf - striking balls and deals over 18 holes
Trump and golf - striking balls and deals over 18 holes

Trump and golf – striking balls and deals over 18 holes

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striking balls and deals over 18 holes

Golf is a business venture, a networking opportunity and a fiercely competitive undertaking. Trump Golf currently owns 11 courses in the US and three in the UK, manages several others and has plans for new resorts in Oman, Indonesia, Vietnam and Qatar. Golf clubs are a prized possession for Trump – and not always a profit-making one. According to filings with the British government, Trump’s Balmedie course lost $1.83m (£1.35m) in 2023 – its 11th-straight year running a deficit. Trump has long wanted Turnberry, which he will visit this weekend, to be the site of a future British Open Championship. The historic course has hosted four of the prestigious competitions, but none since Trump purchased the property in 2014. Golf has long been an avocation enjoyed by the wealthy and the powerful in an exclusive – and in many cases exclusively white male – environment. For Trump, it was a pathway to the kind of connections he needed to build his real estate empire.

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Tee time with Trump – striking balls and deals over 18 holes

8 hours ago Share Save Anthony Zurcher North America correspondent Share Save

EPA Trump at his National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia

Mick Mulvaney thought he had beaten Donald Trump. The president and his White House chief of staff were playing golf at Trump’s Bedminster club in 2019, and Mulvaney was up by one stroke with three holes left. “I slapped him on the shoulder and joked with him, ‘I got you today, old man,'” Mulvaney told the BBC. “He looked at me, half smiled, half-sneered and just laughed.” The president birdied two of the next three holes and beat Mulvaney by two. Mulvaney, who worked in Trump’s White House for three years in his first term, says he played golf with, or in the group just behind, the president around 40 times and never beat the man 21 years his elder. “Just soul-crushing” is how he described it. Golf has been a popular activity for many modern American presidents, but none has had quite the same relationship with the sport as Trump, who is in Scotland this weekend for the opening of a new Trump course near Balmedie in Aberdeenshire. For presidents like Barack Obama and George W Bush, golf seemed to serve as a diversion from the burdens of office. For the current president, however, golf is a business venture, a networking opportunity and – as Mulvaney recounts – a fiercely competitive undertaking. On the fairways and greens, he says, the president is focused on the game and has little tolerance for poor shots or slow play. “In fact, if you are slow,” Mulvaney said, “you aren’t going to get invited back and might get left behind on the course.”

PA Trump at his course in Ayrshire, UK, in 2023

British golf journalist Kevin Brown experienced that first-hand when he played with Trump on his Balmedie course in 2012. He said he was taking in the scenery on the second hole, when one of the other players in his foursome told him that Trump had asked if he could “get a move on”. “He was more focused, head down, motoring on ahead of us,” Brown said. “Most of the time, he was just playing his own game and obviously thinking about stuff he had to do.” After the round, however, Brown spoke to Trump for nearly an hour about his connection to golf. He said the future president’s passion was clear. “He’s nuts about golf,” he said. “He knew the background and history of the game. It was impressive.” Trump, a real-estate developer turned politician, has played golf since his college days and bought his first golf property, Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach Florida, in 1999. Trump Golf currently owns 11 courses in the US and three in the UK, manages several others and has plans for new resorts in Oman, Indonesia, Vietnam and Qatar. Golf clubs are a prized possession for Trump – and not always a profit-making one. According to filings with the British government, Trump’s Balmedie course lost $1.83m (£1.35m) in 2023 – its 11th-straight year running a deficit. Turnberry, on the other hand, reported about $5m in profit. Trump has at times clashed with local authorities over land use and sought to restrict construction of wind turbines off the coast of his Balmedie property. While his US courses have hosted major professional tournaments, he has long wanted Turnberry, which he will visit this weekend, to be the site of a future British Open Championship. The historic course has hosted four of the prestigious competitions, but none since Trump purchased the property in 2014.

PA Trump with Rupert Murdoch at Trump’s golf course in Aberdeen in 2016

According to Brown, Trump is drawn to high-profile golf properties because of the prestige they provide. “He just likes the quality and the pedigree,” he said. “It’s about attracting the right people – i.e. filthy rich businessmen with pretty deep pockets.” A single round of golf at Turnberry, for instance, costs around $1,350. Golf has long been an avocation enjoyed by the elite, where the wealthy and the powerful could conduct business and make connections in an exclusive – and, until recently in many cases exclusively white and male – environment. For businessman Trump, it was a pathway to the kind of connections helpful to building his real estate empire. It has offered him a means to connect with American politicians and foreign leaders – even if he did promise in 2016 that he was “not going to have time to play golf” if he was ever voted into White House. Early in his first presidential term, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gifted Trump a golden golf club. The two would later play five rounds together – forging a friendship that lasted until Abe was assassinated in 2022. Trump’s regular golf partners have included close political allies, like South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, and Republicans with whom he sought to forge new connections, such as 2016 presidential rival Rand Paul of Kentucky. “He’s a little better golfer than I am, admittedly, but we had a good time,” Paul said after a 2017 round with the president, adding that the two mostly focused on golf – but also discussed Trump’s tax policies.

Getty Images Trump with Abe at Mobara Country Club in Japan in 2019

In March of this year, Trump golfed with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in West Palm Beach, partnering in a club tournament Trump said the two men won. Stubb would later say that they talked about the war in Ukraine, Russia and global security. “In Finnish history, it’s quite rare that the Finnish president has spent so much time with the president of the United States, either physically or on the phone or messaging,” Stubb told Canadian broadcaster CBC News. It’s this kind of access, and influence, that has made a tee time with Trump a coveted prize for those seeking a presidential audience. “Anybody who is sophisticated dealing with Donald quickly understands that everything about him is transactional,” said Professor David Cay Johnston of Rochester Institute of Technology, who as a reporter covered Trump for decades and has written three books about the man. “If you’re the head of a company or the head of a nation, you either try and minimise any prospective damage he might do to you by buttering him up or to size him up on something if you’re unsure.” Even back at the White House, foreign leaders have tried to parlay a golf connection into a friendly reception. When South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the Oval Office in May, he gave the president an illustrated South African golf book and included golf professionals Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in his national delegation. That didn’t help much, however, as the meeting devolved into an extended confrontation over South African land confiscation policies.

Truth Social/@realDonaldTrump Trump partnered with Finnish President Alexander Stubb in a tournament earlier this year

Source: Bbc.com | View original article

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly2y4w47deo

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