Donald Trump: Terrible Golfer, Worse President

A scorecard of this administration’s most catastrophic failures.

Trump has spent at least 105 days golfing during his second term, around a quarter of his time / Credit: The White House

Donald Trump is notorious for cheating on the golf course. In the book “Commander in Cheat,” the sportswriter Rick Reilly exhaustively chronicled the myriad ways in which the president bent and broke the rules throughout his long career on the links.

For example, Trump had a habit of simply moving the ball from bad spots to good ones, earning him the nickname “Pelé”—after the famous soccer player—because he so frequently kicks the ball to more favorable spots. Everyone from Mike Tirico to Samuel L. Jackson to Alice Cooper has confirmed that Trump is a shameless cheater. Sometimes, he even has his caddy do the dirty work for him.

It doesn’t seem to have dawned on the president yet how much of an utter disaster his second term is turning out to be. Recently, he has cited polls showing “100 percent” support for his policies, despite his actual numbers cratering. So, to drive the point home in a language the president might understand, we’ve put together a helpful scorecard of this administration’s failures.

We present to you… The Trump 2.0 Scorecard of Failure:

1. Iran – Having the Yips – The administration entrusted a real estate developer with conducting nuclear diplomacy on behalf of the American people. When the negotiations fizzled, Trump started bombing Iran, setting off a cascade effect that is rattling the global economy. A tenuous ceasefire, a blockade, and another failed round of negotiations later, this situation is quickly going from bad to worse.

2. Tariffs – Wrong Club – Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs were announced with fanfare. Markets lost $6.6 trillion in two days. Trump paused them, giving rise to the acronym TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out), and the Supreme Court later struck down the tariffs entirely. Now the tariff refund process is causing headaches for everyone.

3. Lower Prices – Breakfast Ball – The core economic promise of Trump’s campaign was to cut costs. Ground beef prices hit record highs. OJ is up 28 percent. Gasoline is approaching $5 per gallon. 4.8 million people are expected to lose health coverage in 2026.

4. Epstein Files – Fore! – Trump promised full transparency. Instead, his Department of Justice failed to redact the personal information of victims—including nude photographs of young women—and withheld the documents specifically related to accusations against Trump himself. The administration’s botched release of the Epstein files only fueled the conspiracy theory rumor mill about the disgraced financier’s death.

5. DOGE – Sliced Drive – Trump and the head of DOGE, Elon Musk, promised $2 trillion in savings. At best, they delivered around $16.5 billion, while also costing taxpayers $135 billion to execute. We’re not mathematicians, but we did pass the third grade: That’s inefficient. A DOGE staffer admitted under oath that DOGE didn’t lower the deficit.

6. Ukraine – In the Bunker – Trump’s most explicit campaign promise was to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Despite Trump’s efforts to humiliate Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky, the war in Ukraine rages on.

7. Birthright Citizenship – In the Rough – Trump signed an executive order on day one that sought to end birthright citizenship, a cornerstone of American democracy. His executive order has been blocked by every court that reviewed it, and is under review by the Supreme Court

8. Signal-gate – Adding the Wrong Person to Your Foursome – Senior officials planned a military strike on a Signal chat—and they accidentally CC’d a journalist. Then Hegseth shared the same classified details with his wife, brother, and personal lawyer. The Pentagon’s Inspector General confirmed it violated regulations. Nobody was fired.

9. Greenland – Water Hazard – Trump threatened to annex a NATO ally’s territory. NATO allies deployed troops against the United States in response. In typical fashion, Trump TACO’d, backing down while claiming victory.

There is a troubling pattern here—Trump is really good at breaking things, at making life more expensive for regular Americans, at reveling in the misery of others. He’s good at building gaudy hotels, buggy social media platforms, and a knock-off version of the United Nations that includes autocracies but excludes democracies.

The “law of the jungle” ethos that pervades his administration is real and it’s destructive. Although we are making light of his failures, it’s important to reiterate what we know to be true: The damage this administration has caused is painful, irreparable, and ongoing.

The good news is that this administration is extremely unpopular. Per Nate Silver’s tracker, Trump is underwater everywhere—including on his signature issue of immigration. Voters have been electing new candidates around the country—even in the district that includes Mar-a-Lago—who have campaigned against Trump’s agenda. Voters see that Trump’s campaign promises were lies—or if not, their execution has been abysmal—and they are opting for change.

The incompetence of the current administration comes at a cost. On the course, Trump can—and does—cheat his way to victory, and even “wins” golf tournaments he never actually competed in. But here in the real world, inconvenient facts have a way of asserting themselves.

Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.