Sportswriter Rick Reilly said his accusation that President Donald Trump cheats at golf was just confirmed by an unexpected source — and under oath, too.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) was asked in a 2022 grand jury interview whether Trump cheats at golf, according to documents Obtained this week by The New York Times.
“Some people say you might pass him, but you’re not going faster than his caddy,” Graham said. “It is what it is.”
Reilly was quick to highlight that quote on X as evidence:
Graham’s comment appears to confirm one of Reilly’s descriptions of Trump’s tactics.
Reilly — who has played golf with Trump and written an entire book about how he cheats — said in a 2024 interview that the president “always gets a turbocharged golf cart that goes three times as fast as yours, so he always has a 200-yard lead, and that gives him time to cheat.”
Trump moves his ball to better positions and his opponents’ balls into the bunkers before they arrive, Reilly said.
“One time in LA he was playing $50 a hole with these three guys, he hit it into the pond. They see the splash,” Reilly said. “By the time they get there, it’s in the middle of the shipping channel, and they’re like, ‘What the F, Donald?’ And he says, ‘It must have been the tide.’
Reilly has also said that it is common knowledge among golfers that Trump cheats.
‘He will certainly not be acquitted in golf’ Reilly told the Associated Press in 2019. “There have been dozens and dozens of people who could find him guilty of cheating.”
Trump’s golfing habits came under scrutiny last year when a viral video showed what some observers said looked a lot like cheating.
Trump has also faced criticism of golf for other reasons: the cost.
His hobby cost taxpayers more than $150 million during his first term, and more than $70 million so far during his second term.
