Donald Trump – who has spent at least 45 days of his presidency so far on the golf course – has once again been accused of cheating, and this time there is video evidence. Trump’s long history of golfing malpractice is well documented, not least in Rick Reilly’s Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump (2019) where we read that “Trump doesn’t just cheat at golf. He throws it, boots it, and moves it. He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs.”
Some will recognise a similar style in his politics. I see here a more general sign that politics today has become a specific type of game – one the privileged play according to rules of their own choosing, and at the expense of others. What’s more, I’d argue, Trumpian-style cheating runs the risk of breaking the game of politics itself.
